Munem Wasif: Old Dhaka

Photo © Munem Wasif -All Rights Reserved
Here's a response in many more ways than one to Howard W. French's Old Shanghai galleries which I posted about yesterday.

It's by well-known Bangladeshi photographer Munem Wasif, whose trademark gritty high-contrast black & white photographs seem to be the common denominator amongst many of his equally talented compatriot photographers.

Old Dhaka -as we've seen of the old neighborhoods of Shanghai- offers endless scenes of unadulterated humanity to photographers. The Western affinity for privacy doesn't exist here. Mothers bathe their children in the open, while the elderly help one another to perform basic needs and people live virtually in the open without shame or embarrassment.

It's quite evident from this photo essay that Munem Wasif (and others like him) are photographers who have the ability to achieve a no-holds barred intimacy with their subjects. Achieving this closeness undoubtedly enhances the humanness of the subjects we see in their pictures.

Old Dhaka is featured on the incomparable ZoneZero, the site dedicated to photography founded 16 years ago by Pedro Meyer.

»»  read more

Rajibul Islam: The Rohingya

Photo © Sheikh Rajibul Islam-All Rights Reserved
The Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group of the Northern Arakan State of Western Burma, are denied citizenship and suffer persecution and discrimination in Myanmar. Hundreds of thousands have fled to Bangladesh. An estimated 25,000 unregistered Rohingya refugees are living in the Kutupalong makeshift camp in Bangladesh, and are being forcibly displaced from their homes, in an act of intimidation and abuse by the local authorities. Few have been granted refugee status. The majority struggle to survive, unrecognized and unassisted in Bangladesh.

Precious little on Sheikh Rajibul Islam's background is available on the internet, although he is listed on Lightstalkers as a Bangladeshi documentary photographer and film maker. Rajibul has also worked with Benjamin Chesterton of duckrabbit in Dhaka, where they have been working on a documentary about the effects of climate change on Bangladesh.

In my view, Rajibul and his powerful work belong to what I call the Bangladeshi "school" of photography...the dark and brooding style, which showcases social issues which need to be addressed. He's in good company: G.M.B. Akash, Sumit Dayal, Munem Wasif, Andrew Biraj, Tanvir Ahmed, Abir Abdullah, Monirul Alam, Shehzad Noorani, Saiful Huq Omi, Khaled Hasan, Murtada Bulbul, Mohammad Kibria Palash and Azizur Rahim Peu...and so many other talented photographers.

The Rohingya photo essay is showcased by the excellent Social Documentary. Social Documentary is a website for photographers, NGOs, editors, journalists, lovers of photography and anyone else who believes that photography plays an important role in educating people about our world.

Thanks to Benjamin Chesterton of the incomparable duckrabbit for bringing Rajibul Islam to our attention.

»»  read more

Geoffrey Hiller: The Bangladesh Project

Geoffrey Hiller is an award winning multimedia artist, a teacher of interactive media, a photographer and the editor of Verve Photo, which he describes as having showcased the work of close to 300 photographers. However, he returns to this blog's pages for his The Bangladesh Project.

Geoffrey has lived and taught in Dhaka from August 2008 to May 2009 on a Fulbright Scholarship, teaching interactive media, and has now published a dedicated website for his The Bangladesh Project in which he showcases a number of photographic galleries such as Faces, Islam, The River, Hindu Culture, to name but a few, of images made in this photogenic and magnetic country. Geoffrey and his students have been photographing everywhere in Dhaka...in the streets, on constructions sites, in markets, in madrasas, trying to capture the essence of this city of 15 million people.

Personally, I think he succeeded. I also hope that Geoffrey will be producing a multimedia feature based on this project.

»»  read more

Lens Culture: Munem Wasif

Photo © Munem Wasif -All Rights Reserved
Munem Wasif is a Bangladeshi documentary photographer, who started his photographic career as a feature photographer for the Daily Star, a leading English daily of Bangladesh. In 2007, he was selected for the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass in the Netherlands, and subsequently won International Award "F25" of the Fabrica and "City of Perpignan Young Reporter’s Award". His work is exhibited at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, at the International Photography Biennial of the Islamic World in Iran, at Fotofreo, the festival of photography in Australia and at Visa Pour l’Image in Perpignan. He is represented through Agency VU in Paris.

The superb Lens Culture blog brings us exclusive audio interviews with Munem, who spoke of the ecological and personal disasters in Bangladesh caused by a vast influx of shrimp farming.

Another interview with Munem appeared on TTP here.

via The Click

»»  read more

Khaled Hasan: The Stone Crushers

Khaled Hasan was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and joined Pathshala (the South Asian Institute of Photography) and completed a workshop in Chobimela IV (2006). He was inspired by Shahidul Alam and Reza Deghati. He worked as a freelancer for several daily newspapers in Bangladesh and for the photo agency Majorityworld. His photographs have been published in the Sunday Times Magazine, American Photo, National Geographic, Better Photography, Saudi Aramco World and The New Internationalist.

The Stone Crushers of Bangladesh also appeared on GlobalPost, the excellent online news organization, and documents the working community of Jaflong in the northeastern part of Bangladesh. The Piyain River, which flows from India through Bangladesh, washes rocks and pebbles from India into the Jaflong area, where thousands of laborers collect the stones and crush them. The crushed stones are then sold for making roads and at construction sites. A backbreaking job for little pay and no security.

Gritty documentary work by yet another talented photographer/photojournalist from Bangladesh!

»»  read more

Saiful Haq Omi: Bangladesh's Coastline

Bangladesh is a country that produces incredibly talented documentary photographers, and certainly Saiful Haq is among those who qualify for the recognition.

Saiful Haq Omi has wanted to tell stories from his very first days as a photographer. His political activism eventually evolved, and he now considers himself as a ‘photo activist,’hoping to use his visual talents to document a variety of unique and vibrant profiles including the former prime minister, migrant workers, laborers, - and victims of political violence.

From his black & white portfolios, I like his Life Along the Coastline the best as it documents a way of life surviving the erosion of land by rivers and sea, surviving the loss of homes and livelihood, and a story of migration against all odds.

I ought to add my thanks to Asim Rafiqui for pointing out, via his erudite post The Dust From Blood-Filled Eyes, that Saiful Haq was a finalist for the prestigious Alexia Foundation Grant, where there's more on his photographic background.

»»  read more

G.M.B Akash: Bangladesh's Tribal Life

©G.M.B Akash-All Rights Reserved
G.M.B Akash’s is one of the "young Turks" in photojournalism, and has made his imprint in the international photography scene. He's the first Bangladeshi to be selected for the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass in the Netherlands, and received numerous international and national awards. His work has been featured in over 45 major international publications including: Time, Sunday Times, Newsweek, Geo, Stern, Der Spiegel, The Guardian, Marie Claire, The Economist, The New Internationalist, Kontinente, Amnesty Journal, Courier International, PDN, Die Zeit, Days Japan,and Sunday Telegraph of London.

In 2006 he was awarded a World Press Photo award and released his first book “First Light”. He was also recognized as one of 30 Emerging Photographers (PDN 30) by Photo District News Magazine in 2007.

I chose his gallery Tribal life in Bangladesh, whose introduction informs us that these tribes live primarily in the Chittagong Hills and in the regions of Mymensingh, Sylhet, and Rajshahi. Reading further, I came across this sentence; a situation that is really replicated across many countries of the world, not only among tribals.

"The women-folk are more hardworking than the males and they are the main productive force."

Posted by TTP's robotic assistant

»»  read more

Munem Wasif: PDN INterview

Munem Wasif of Bangladesh is a popular figure at this year's Visa pour l'Image festival. He's just won the City of Perpignan Young Reporters award, and his exhibition of photos shot in and around his home country of Bangladesh is a highlight of the festival.

He prefers to photograph in balck & white, which he finds more seductive for his style of work, and lauds the emergence of non-Western photographers who document their own countries.

Via PDN Pulse (link)

»»  read more

Bangladesh Indigenous Women: Mahmud

Over 50 different indigenous societies live in Bangladesh, and women are the most excluded from the rest of society. Mahmud, of MAP Photo Agency, has photographed these populations for the last decade. This exhibition of his work, co-hosted by ActionAid and the Bangladesh Indigenous People’s Forum will be held at Drik Gallery on August 7-13, 2008.

Venue:
Drik Gallery
House 58, Road 15A (New),
Dhanmondi Residential Area, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Tel: (880-2) 9120125, 8123412, 8112954

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find Mahmud's work on the web, but his image of the woman above is indicative of his talents.

»»  read more

Shahidul Alam: Brahmaputra

Layout © Zone Zero-All Rights Reserved
Here's one of my favorites multimedia presentations by Shahidul Alam, one of the most prominent photographers and educator in South Asia. He became the president of the Bangladesh Photographic Society, and founded the Drik Picture Library and "Pathshala" - South Asian Institute of Photography. He is also a director of Chobi Mela, the festival of photography in Asia, and has been awarded the Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 2001, for his contribution to photography. He is on the advisory board for the Eugene Smith Memorial Fund and the National Geographic Society.

Brahmaputra may seem outdated now, but it's still a marvelous multimedia project featuring a journey from Mt Kailash to Lhasa, through Assam down to Bangladesh. The photographs are small and the multimedia add-ons are not as impressive by today's standards, however there's no question that Brahmaputra is one of the multimedia projects that led the way.

Via Zone Zero: Brahmaputra

»»  read more

Digital Photo Pro: Shiho Fukada

Layout © Digital Photo Pro magazine-All Rights Reserved
I'm really pleased, but not surprised, that Shiho Fukada, TTP's Photographer of The Year, is the subject of an article entitled "A Different Kind of Briefcase" published in Digital Photo Pro magazine (below for link).

On the other hand, I was surprised to read Shiho's difficulty in selling her fascinating photo essay "Life In A Brothel"...a photographic project about the sex trade in Bangladesh, which can be seen on her website (below for link). According to the informative article: "Fukada describes the response from the American magazines to whom she has pitched the project: “Third-world brothels have been done to death. What else do you have?”

What else does she have? Well, she's got plenty...but that's hardly the point, is it magazine editors? The point is that she cares about that poignant story and she intends to share it with the world at large.

The article (written by Louis Lesko) also reaffirms what anyone who sees her photographs immediately knows: "Shiho Fukada is a storyteller first. Photography wasn’t the goal for her; it was the vehicle to realize her passion for telling stories. And that’s one of the reasons why her work stands out so significantly. She’s totally committed to the narrative."

Read the article in Digital Photo Pro here

Shiho Fukada's website

»»  read more

Kate Holt: Bangladesh

Image Copyright ©Kate Holt-All Rights Reserved
Kate Holt's first solo trip was to Romania, following the fall of Ceausescu in 1991, and may have shaped her career. News of the horrific conditions in which Romania's unwanted children were being kept were in the British headlines and she decided to see what she could do to help. Her year working in Romania's orphanages had a profound effect on her and she returned many times to help.

She turned to journalism and photojournalism, and traveled to Bosnia in the wake of the war and on to Albania to document the refugees who flooded over the border from Kosova in 1999. She also spent over a year uncovering the exploding sex slave trade - young girls trafficked from Romania, Moldova and the Ukraine who were bought and sold as commodities.

Kate works as both an investigative reporter and photographer, and returns to Africa and the Balkans frequently. She combines this with photographing for NGO's, helping to publicise their work through articles, lectures and exhibitions.

Reminscent of my own work on the widows of India, I chose to feature Kate's work in Bangladesh, which focuses on the elderly in this impoverished nation. Her website also list the various charities and NGOs she works for, as well as their websites.

Kate Holt's Bangladesh's Elderly

»»  read more

G M B Akash: Gordon Parks Center

Image Copyright © G M B Akash-All Rights Reserved
I was pleased to learn that G M B Akash has won first place in the 2007 Gordon Parks International Photo Competition with the above remarkable photograph of a young girl on a train in Bangladesh. Akash tells us that because of Bangladesh’s large population, inadequate number of seats on trains, and inherent poverty, many people are stowaways. This often results in terrible accidents.

I've posted about Akash's photographic talents on TTP here, where in contrast to other mindless agenda-driven blogs, I chose to adopt a less venomous approach to his photograph of a chained Muslim child in a Bangladeshi madrasa.

The Gordon Parks International Photo Competition has been conducted by Fort Scott Community College since 1990. More than 3,100 individuals from around the world have participated in this annual program that, inspired by the photography of Gordon Parks, reflects important themes in life such as social injustice, the suffering of others, and family values.

G M B Akash's Website

Gordon Parks Center's Contest Results

»»  read more

Munem Wasif: Tainted Tea

Image Copyright © Abdul Munem Wasif-All Rights Reserved
Abdul Munem Wasif is a talented documentary photographer based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He graduated from Pathshala – South Asian Institute of Photography, and started off on his career as staff photographer for Daily Star, a leading daily of Bangladesh. He currently works in DrikNEWS as a staff photographer, and has achieved deserved notoriety through his excellent photographic work in the hills of Assam in India.

In Tainted Tea, his photographs uncover the sad lives of the tea gatherers and workers in the tea plantations of Tea Estates of Assam in India, or Sylhet and Hobiganj in Bangladesh. Part of his statement reads : "They are the tales of cornered lives, chronic poverty and chained hope. This is the tale of ‘Tainted Tea’. Sprawling green hills, petit women in colourful saris, picking tea leaves and throwing them into the tukri on their back — the image we are shown. A picture perfect tale of harmony and prosperity, as portrayed by the many tea companies, is what belies modern day slavery. "

The ill-treatment of tea workers is not new, and tea plantations, growers and companies have come under increasing scrutiny to improve conditions. It is generally the women who do all the picking....men don’t do any picking, but do the rest of the needed work by weeding, and working the machines. The women's daily wage is 27 takas (about 50 cents), and she has to feed her family with it.

All of the women and men who work on the Bangladeshi tea estates are descendants of tribes who, a century ago, had come (or were brought) from central India as slaves of the British colonists, under a system called Girmit. While the name isn't used anymore, the practices are identical. The tea estates are vitually separate ‘states within a state’, and are still carrying the practices of a century ago.

His multimedia project is extremely well done, and is brought to us by Zone Zero, You'll never drink a cup of tea again without remembering these images!

Munem's Tainted Tea is here

»»  read more

Q. Sakamaki: Bangladeshi Sex Workers

Image Copyright © Q. Sakamaki - All Rights Reserved
Q. Sakamaki graduated from Columbia University with a master’s degree in International Affairs, Concentration in Conflict
Resolution and Human Rights. Born and raised in Japan, he now makes his home in New York City and has been photographing war zones throughout the world such as Afghanistan, Iraq,Palestine, Liberia, Bosnia and Kosovo - documenting not only the political landscape but people’s emotional relationship to conflict.

His photographs have appeared in books and magazines worldwide including Time, Life, and L’espresso and have been the subject of solo shows in New York and Tokyo. He has published three books, including "Palestine", is a Karate master, and a writer who contributes mainly to the Japanese media. He's represented by Redux Pictures.

To illustrate this post, I chose an image from the Banglan (I'm unsure what Banglan means, but I suspect it's another word for Bangladeshi) Sex Workers gallery on Sakamaki's website. The image is of 15 year-old Rotina, a sex worker who has contracted HIV. Most of his images are toned, and are powerful examples of what responsible social photography is capable of.

Q. Sakamaki website

»»  read more

GMB Akash: Bangladesh

Image Copyright © G M B Akash-All Rights Reserved
I'm pleased to see that GMB Akash, a photographer from Bangladesh, has been named as one of PDN's 30 New & Emerging Photographers for 2007. Since I started TTP blog, I've been introduced to the enormous talent coming from South Asia and Asia itself. This emerging talent is still under-represented in the international media and lacks the exposure it deserves, but it's getting there.

Akash (I don't really know what GMB stands for, so I'll use Akash rather than an acronym) is a brave photographer, documenting sides of society that are not pretty. His photographs are courageous, complex and make us think. His use of color, available light and sense of timing allows him to photograph what others may not.

I read that his photograph of the young boy in chains caused a furore in Bangladesh, and that Akash has had to seek temporary refuge, or was stranded, in Germany. I don't know if that is true or not, but he now seems to be back in his country, photographing as usual.

I've chosen his gallery of photographs on Muslim medresas to showcase here on TTP. While some of you will form an opinion on Muslim schools from these photographs (if you don't have one already), I'd like you to also consider that not all medresas shackle their students nor treat them badly. I don't know why this unfortunate boy was treated in such a barbaric and primitive way but for the sake of fairness and objectivity, here's a photograph I've taken in an Indonesian Muslim school in Bali (Indonesia). The photograph is from my Bali Canang gallery. I had just dropped in on the school where I was warmly welcomed, and invited to photograph as I pleased. You'll agree that the difference is striking.

Still reflecting on the boy in chains...is it to keep him from running away, and joining street kids...and is it therefore for his own good? He looks well-fed, clean and healthy. Is there a story behind the photograph, and was it that which caused the furore in Bangadesh? There must be a reason why this child is treated this way and not the rest of the medresa's children. I'm certainly not condoning this treatment (which I deem barbaric) but questions must be asked and hopefully answered, and I -for one- will not take the photograph at its face value.

Akash's website has many other galleries, most of which deal with issues related to certain facets of non-mainstream South Asian society, so go ahead...explore a world many of us do not know.

GMB Akash's Muslim Schools

Image Copyright © GMB Akash

»»  read more