Carpe Diem: BracU VC takes his students on a journey beyond knowledge

How do you define who is and isn't a real photographer? Is it one's education? One who uses expensive professional equipment? Or one's ability to communicate a story through their work?

Carpe Diem, a solo photography exhibition of BRAC University's Vice Chancellor Vincent Chang, has very interesting answers to these very questions. The show is primarily composed of photographs of beautiful landscapes from all over the world, and every photograph has a story that goes along with the exhibit. 

Professor Chang holds a PhD in economics from MIT, a second PhD in electrical engineering and computer sciences from University of California at Berkeley, a Master's degree in public administration from Harvard, MBA from Yale, and BS in electrical engineering from National Taiwan University. 

Chang has been in Bangladesh for over three years. Before joining BRAC University, he served as the Inaugural Chair for institutional development at Chinese University of Hong Kong in China, the Founding President and Planning Director of University of Business and Technology in Oman (academically affiliated with Virginia Tech in the US), and Inaugural Executive Dean of Peking University's HSBC Business School.

The distinguished academician on Sunday was the artist behind the show. "I am interested in many things. I took these pictures without thinking about an exhibition. I approach things with my heart. I speak from my heart, and I even run the school with my heart. A few of my friends said my photography is good and I should share them with my students," explained Chang. "I never said I want to be a photographer; I never had approached photography from that perspective."  

The show encourages students to go beyond the classroom. 

"Dhaka is crowded. Look at BRAC University, we don't have a campus and we are small. I always encourage students to go beyond the classroom. Study is important but going beyond is also important. One needs to go beyond the classroom, beyond university, beyond the city and even beyond the country. With this, you excite the students' innovation, you excite their imagination. At the end of the day imagination is much more important than knowledge." 

Chang loves painting and Chinese calligraphy. But as he explained, "I really don't have the time to practise. I am too busy running a university."  However, he practises his photography during his spare time and during his breaks. Whenever he is on a business trip, he usually arrives one day earlier, or leaves a day later, to make the most out of his travels. 

"Carpe Diem translates to 'seize the day' in English. But I translate it to 'seize the moment,'" said Chang. "Some of my colleagues like to spend their trips inside the hotel, but not me. I wander around and I get lost, that is how I got all of these pictures."   

All of Chang's photographs were taken using a phone camera, a phone which is not even amongst the latest and greatest – the iPhone X. He feels gear is important to professionals, an artist needs quality brushes and paint to work. But he does not think gear is the most important aspect of art. 

"At the end of the day art is a reflection of your heart. You don't need expensive equipment. This show is an example of just that. I do not own any expensive camera or lenses," said Chang. "There are caveats to this, I am not able to zoom in. There are many moments when I wish I had a camera, but I only have a phone. Regardless, I think it is good enough, it is good enough for me and I hope it is good enough for my students."

Carpe Diem's exhibits were curated by Chang himself, but everything else was organised by members of BRAC University's  student club BRAC University Art and Photography Society. "The students told me, 30 years from now, they will forget many things, but they will not forget how 60 of them spend the whole night here organising everything."

Despite the exhibits being most composed of landscape photographs, Chang prefers photographing people. However, he did not include these photos because of privacy concerns. 

"I am an educator and a social scientist. In my experience, I believe creativity is much more important than knowledge. No matter how much you learn, or how good your skill is, the world changes very fast and you have to have creativity to be able to adapt. I never say GPA is the most important thing, you should always follow your interests. Success does not only have a single path, there are many ways to get there," said Chang. "Bangladesh is still developing, but in order to develop the country you need more and more creative people. These endeavours help students to follow their creative interests."

TBS Picks:

A selection of exhibits from the show with a description from the photographer.

I took this photograph because of its shape. It looks otherworldly and it looks peaceful. It is in the shape of a pyramid and it felt like maybe this was built by aliens. This was taken in Greenland, I went during my Eid break.

This photograph was taken in Bangladesh, it was taken in Tangail. This is my colleague's home. I was walking around in the morning and it looked very poetic to me.

This was taken in Ireland.  When I passed them by, I felt like they were a cute couple. I don't know if they are a couple or not, I just assumed they were. I took this picture last year, during summer.