You are cordially invited to attend the inauguration ceremony of Chobi Mela III -The International Festival of Photography, Asia 2004, at the Alliance Francaise gallery on the 6th of December, Monday at 4 pm. The guest of honour for the festival will be the celebrated Mexican photographer Pedro Meyer. The festival will be launched through the opening of Norway's outstanding portrait photographer Morten Krogvold. Tarek AIGhoussain from UAE and Geerte Wachter from the Prince Claus Fund of the Netherlands will be present as special guests. Shahidul Alam, Festival Director for Chobi Mela III, will preside over the session. On this ocassion four legendary Bangladeshi photographers will be honoured by Chobi Mela for their outstanding achievements and contributions in the field of photography. This year Chobi Mela Lifetime Achievement Awards will go to Golam Kashem Daddy, Alokchitracharya Manzoor Alam Beg, Amanul Haque and Shamsul Islam Almazi. The festival which includes 38 exhibitions from 17 countries will be on display in 7 different galleries of Dhaka city from the 6th to the 23rd December 2004. Evening performances will take place daily from the 6th till the 11th December at the Goethe Institut and will include films, multimedia presentations, lectures and video conferences. Bangladesh Abir Abdullah Nayemuzzaman Prince Press Photographers SARPV Shahidul Alam India Dharavi Parthiv Shah Raghu Rai Sudharak Olwe Suvendu Chatterjee Swapan Nayak Iran Reza Deghati Shadi Ghadirian Omid Salehi Japan Shinzo Hanabusa   Malaysia Alex Moh ( curator ) Victor Chin Mexico Pedro Meyer   Nepal Ashesh Dangol Deependra Bajracharya Usha Titikshu Netherlands John Lambrichts Michel Szulc-Krzyzanowski Norway Morten Krogvold   Pakistan Tehmina Ahmed ( curator )   Singapore Chris Yap Darren Soh Tay Kay Chin Then Chih Wey Zhuang Wubin South Africa Neo Ntsoma Sri Lanka Dominic Sansoni   Thailand Jerome Ming Manit Sriwanichpoom UAE Tarek Al-Ghoussein UK Hilary Knox Peter Fryer   USA Dick Doughty ( curator ) Richard Glickstein Srinivas Kuruganti