My name is Shehzad. I'm currently based in Toronto. I was born in Bangladesh and grew up as a refugee in Karachi, Pakistan. I became a photographer by accident when my teacher handed me a camera to take pictures at school. I turned out to be a decent photographer, people in the neighbourhood found out about me, and I started getting assignments. It became my passion, and I have never looked back.
In the last 30 years, I have documented social issues affecting lives of urban poor and marginalized people, covered major emergencies resulting from man-made and natural disasters in over 70 countries. My clients include UNICEF, WFP, WHO, Save the Children, Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University.
After listening to one of my childhood stories, a friend advised me to write a biography and suggested I title it,
"I am not a thief anymore."
Introducing me, Dr. Shahidul Alam, a famous Bangladeshi photographer and an activist, said, "Noorani's life has shaped much of what he photographs. A child worker who got caught raiding a neighbour's kitchen for food is an unlikely candidate for a successful career in photography. But statistics are very poor at predicting life as it unfolds ...It is the subaltern that Shehzad has photographed, but not through pitiful eyes, or some romantic notion of charity, but through a genuine understanding of what being poor is."
