I was born in a small village in northern Bangladesh called Baghopara, which means “Village of Tigers” in Bengali. In reality, it’s a village of people who used to live below the poverty line. Somehow, I managed to survive.

I started photography when I was a graduate student. I used to sell used mobile phones back then. One day I got my own second-hand mobile phone with a 5MP camera, and started taking photos of flowers, butterflies and insects. I really liked it.

One day, I shared some of my photos in a photography group on Facebook. People appreciated them and told me to capture and share more photos. I was really encouraged and started to take more and more photos.

With the help of tutorials online, over time I learnt rules and tricks, but I still wanted to enhance the quality of my photography. So I made an external macro lens for my phone.

Others were impressed with the external lens I had made and asked me to make lenses for them. It was cheap and I sold many.

In the meantime I won several mobile phone photography competitions with small prize money and I bought my first DSLR camera with that. It was a Nikon D5200. I was so excited as I knew the full potential of owning my own camera would help me.

After graduating, I needed a job but it wasn’t easy to get one. I realised the reality of the world I was living in. So, I decided to stay with photography and make it my profession. Now I am a full-time photographer.