Obituary: Enamul Hoque, Founding Trustee Oitij-jo Collective
Enamul Hoque
November 1968 —April 2022
It is with deep sadness that we write about the sudden and premature loss of our fellow Founding Trustee, Enamul Hoque. He lost his battle with lung cancer and passed away on Sunday 24th April this, at UCLH Hospital in London.
Enamul was also very much a visual artist in his own right. He believed in the power of the arts to change mindsets, and after a very successful career in the commercial sector of photography and film, he embarked on his personal projects as an artist too. This involved connecting with the philosophical traditions of Bangladesh’s Lalon, wanting to impart the knowledge to future generations and beyond Bangladeshis, he firmly believed in the messages of Lalon, a humanist poet-philosopher, whose legacies continue on in Bangladesh. He did this by documenting and presenting songs by various Lalon followers in Bangladesh, going to Kushtia multiple times and also inviting them to his birth home in Keraniganj. A snippet of this project was presented at the Barbican Centre, London in 2014.
As a founding Trustee of the OITIJ-JO Collective, Enamul was a friend, mentor and colleague, meeting the team via Paraa’s Benarasi project in 2011.
He was generous with his time and resources in Oitij-jo. Ruhul and Enamul worked on various projects at Paraa and Oitij-jo, as they overlapped and intersected - from the festival, to micro exhibitions in Brick Lane to events and presentations.
Ruhul saw Enamul as fellow creative British Bangladeshi, with years of experience and knowledge to learn from, work with and also to support each other in their creative disciplines. This led to a friendship beyond Oitij-jo, and collaborations across many projects. His fondest memories revolve around conversations about the meaning of family and the role of the artist in society, and ways to push creative boundaries. He always saw huge potential in Ruhul and supported him as best as he could.
There was massive amounts of love and trust within the Oitij-jo team, with Maher fondly remembering their often friendly crossfires and debates, and they had formed a perhaps also a sibling like bickering at times, being of similar ages but very different backgrounds professionally, but in the end they had always focused on the big vision for Oitijjo. Enamul had endless amounts of love and respect for the work Maher has done in leading Oitij-jo forward in the past few years, and wanted to support her in this journey.
Abbas and Enamul collaborated closely with producing the Lalon project, in particular ‘Portrait of Baul’ and as Abbas recollects, probably in their younger days, they were dancing in the same parties in London. Enamul respected Abbas’s belief and support, and was extremely grateful for this and in helping Enamul realise the Lalon project and archive, collaborating together with the Barbican and the British Library.
John Baker, who has recently passed and the Oitij-jo team is still coming to terms with this, was very close to Enamul, and they had spent many hours in pubs together, discussing the Lalon project, translations and meanings of the works and John had been a very important elder to Enamul.
He has spent his life, since a teenager, photographing and filming, and leaves an archive that may take years to sift through and learn from.
His creative impulses were shaped by his Bangladeshi and British upbringing, merging and overlapping in ways that others very rarely have been able to do, with a strong focus on portraiture and fashion, in both video and photography. These points of inspirations for Enamul were critical to the work he focused on, and why he was passionate about the potential for the next generation, if they were engaged with their diverse cultural heritages, would aspire to do more and better.
It is extremely difficult to summarise Enamul’s life in this particular post, he was a creative force that the Oitijjo Collective were extremely lucky to have from the formative days in 2012. His absolute passion for pushing the Charity towards creative excellence has kept us on our toes, and his commitment to the Oitijjo project was absolute. He firmly believed in the importance of the diverse cultural roots that British Bangladeshis are often disconnected from, and wanted to present projects and ideas that he felt were critical.
Enamul’s ideas for Oitij-jo, from the Festival at the Bargehouse on the South Bank, to the numerous events, exhibitions and projects, were rooted in his passion to celebrate the richness of Bangladesh’s heritage and culture through the talent and skills he had as a creative director, photographer, videographer and curator.
Enamul was larger than life, yet also a private person, and had a small, but beautiful circle of friends and family that he was close to and who understood his creative spirit.
Enamul is succeeded by his wife and young child, his siblings and some very beautiful friends, the Oitij-jo team, who all know that Enamul’s passing will leave a giant gap, that no other being can fill, and rightly so.
Link to Enamul’s archive: Website