Jashim Salam: Celestial Devotion

Photo © Jashim Salam-All Rights Reserved

Jashim Salam is a Bangladeshi photographer, who's currently working for Driknews international photo agency. He was recognized with a Jury Special Award in the 6th Humanity Photo Awards 2009 Contest, sponsored by the China Folklore Photographic Association, the Guangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee and UNESCO. He also received awards in the 69th International Photographic Salon of Japan (Asahi Shimbun) in 2008, a honorable mention in the USA Legatum Center Photo Contest in 2009, a special award in the People & Planet photo contest 2009 in Australia, and otjers.

Jashim's atmospheric photo essay Celestial Devotion is featured by the website SocialDocumentary.net, and is about an an orphanage and Islamic school in Chittagong. The orphanage/school claims to have mentored thousands of youngsters to memorize the Qu'ran since it was established in 1970. It currently hosts some 200 orphans who share very basic facilities. According to UN statistics, 6 million students are enrolled in the madrasa system in Bangladesh.

Madrasas have received (some deservedly) a bad reputation in the West, and being synonymous with fundamentalist teachings. Some are just that, but the larger majority seem to be nothing more than institutions providing social assistance to orphans and the poor. This is not a novel concept, but one that is shared by many other religious traditions such as Buddhism, and Hindu Vedic schools as an example.

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Elizabeth Herman: Durga Puja

Photo © Elizabeth Herman-All Rights Reserved

Elizabeth Herman is a photographer and a recent graduate of Tufts University. She's currently residing in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where she is a Fulbright Fellow. At Tufts, Elizabeth intertwined her studies with her passion for photography through "Exposure", the Tufts’ student-led documentary studies group.

Whilst in Dhaka, Elizabeth documented the annual Durga Puja. The annual event is an Hindu festival in South Asia that celebrates worship of the Hindu goddess Durga. As far as Bangladesh is concerned, Durga Puja is its largest religious festival for Bengali Hindus.

As an aside, Durga Puja will be the objective of my Kolkata's Cult of Durga Photo-Expedition/Workshop in early October 2011.It's sold out but a standby/waiting list is available.

While logged on to Elizabeth's website, be sure not to miss her Women Warriors, a visual project focusing on Vietnamese women who fought in the war with the United States.

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Khaled Hasan: Death of Dreams

Photo © Khaled Hasan-All Rights Reserved

Khaled Hasan is a Bangladeshi freelance photographer, whose work appeared in several daily newspapers in Bangladesh and international Magazines, such as Sunday Times Magazine, American Photo, National Geographic Society, Better Photography, Saudi Aramco World Magazine, Guardian, Telegraph, The Independent and The New Internationalist.

He was awarded the 2008 All Roads Photography Program of National Geographic Society, as well as the Alexia Foundation Student Award (Award of Excellence). He has been recognized with several awards including the Humanity Photo Documentary Award.

Khaled believes in immersion photography, and listens, observes and talks with his subjects over an extended period of time. In Death of Dreams, he focused on Dhaka's largest old-age home called Boshipuk, and followed the daily lives of the residents for two years.

His photo essay documents the effect of modernization on the traditional structure of Bangla families, and which leads to old ways and values being discarded. Elderly parents are now forced to live out their old age alone, and face living the remaining of their lives in impersonal surroundings.

Via GlobalPost's Full Frame.

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Andrea Pistolesi: The Rohingya Refugees

Photo © Andrea Pistolesi-All Rights Reserved
Andrea Pistolesi is a pro in the full meaning of the word...a my kind of guy...a photographer who fuses travel and editorial imagery, and who's candid enough to say that professional travel photography as it existed is now extinct, and that travel publications and ancillary glossies are a dying breed. He espouses the view -like I do- that interesting visual stories are all around us, but that we need to broaden our scope by creating new ways of distribution (think of the new VII Magazine, as an example).

Andrea was born and lives in Florence, and studied geography at the local university, evolving in a travel photographer specializing in geographic and global social reportage. He published books on exotic destinations (Indonesia, New Zealand, Morocco, South Africa, The Land of Buddha, Hinduism, Eastern Christianity), and amongst others, has recently published a book on prayers of major religions.

He was widely published in CN Traveller (Italy), Delta Sky, Departures, Elle, l'Espresso, Figaro Mag, Gente Viaggi, Geo, Gulliver, Hemispheres, Islands, LATimes Mag, National Geographic, NYT Sophisticated Traveler, Photo, Rutas del Mundo, Smithsonian Mag, Time, Travel & Leisure, and many others.

Andrea's website is a cornucopia of travel and editorial photography, which is bound to give viewers hours of enjoyment, and provide photographers immense inspiration and ideas.

I spent a while on his website, trying to decide which of his galleries to feature on this blog. It was difficult, and I changed my mind often. Finally, I chose the brilliant reportage of the Rohingya refugees in southern Bangladesh.

As Andrea describes them, the Rohingya are the unwanted of southwestern Asia. An ethnic Muslim minority, they have no rights in Burma and try to flee across the borders with Bangladesh where only a few earn a refugee status. For others, it's a life of squalid illegal camps, an unending odyssey falling prey to human traffickers, to organ traffickers, to sex rings and to pedophiles.

Also read Andrea's blog post Requiem For Travel Photography. And don't miss his work on the Nats (spirits of Mynamar) and on the Bugis Seafarers.

Highly recommended as a photographer to follow.

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Amy Johansson: Lethal Leather

Photo © Amy Johansson-All Rights Reserved
Amy Johansson is a Swedish photographer, who's currently about to move from her Bangladesh base to attend an international photojournalism course at the Danish School of Media and Journalism . After completing a degree in fashion design, Amy worked as a designer for several years, until moving to Dhaka as a product developer.

Upon her taking up photography, she rapidly won awards and has been represented in numerous galleries and exhibitions, such as the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait exhibition at the London National Portrait Gallery in 2009.

Amy attended the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop last year in Manali (India) where she won the emerging photojournalist award, and also attended it in Istanbul two weeks ago.

She recently co-produced an audio slideshow titled Lethal Leather on that industry in Bangladesh, its medieval conditions and its lethal toxic consequences on its workers. It's a joint project between her and journalist Gabrielle Jönsson.

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Pierre Claquin: Surviving Dreams

Photo © Pierre Claquin-All Rights Reserved

Photo © Pierre Claquin-All Rights Reserved

Whilst attending my Introduction To Multimedia class at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop (Istanbul), Pierre Claquin divulged that he had been a photographer at the age of 16 through a younger brother who owned a Foca camera and let him use it. Matters progressed, and Pierre graduated to an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic, then a Nikkormat...and he stayed with Nikon ever since.

Pierre also divulged that he had produced a photographic book titled Surviving Dreams: The Struggling Circuses of Bangladesh, which documents the few remaining circuses in that country. Very few remain, struggling against bureaucracy, corruption, prejudice and financial difficulties. The book, of some 158 pages of which about 120 are black & white photographs, examines the origin and history of the circus in Bangladesh, as well as the realities of the performers' lives.

As to his choice of black & white, Pierre says" "I used black and white film for this project because, especially in the case of circuses, it is very easy to be distracted by colors."

I enjoyed the book immensely, and you can buy the book Surviving Dreams by contacting Pierre Claquin by email: lalbandor at aol dot com

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Stijin Pieters: Durga Puja

Stijn Pieters is a self taught freelance photographer based in Gent, Belgium whose work focuses on under-reported social, political and environmental issues. He completed projects in Nepal, Kashmir, Palestine, Northern Ireland, Swaziland, Yemen, Morocco, Iran, Vietnam, The Philippines, India and Bangladesh; most of which tackle diverse issues, from HIV/aids in Swaziland to the pervasive gun culture in Yemen, from Agent Orange victims in Vietnam to stateless people in Bangladesh.

For his projects in Yemen in 2006 and Morocco in 2007, Stijn received respectively grants from the Pascal Decroos Foundation and the King Baudouin Foundation. His work has been published in Belgian magazines like MO*, Vrede, Menzo, Tertio, Vacature, Varen and Isel Magazine.

The above slideshow is on the Durga Puja in Bangladesh, and is very nice work by Stijn. It's an annual Hindu festival in South Asia that celebrates worship of the Hindu goddess Durga. You can click on it for a full screen experience.

The most celebrated Durga Puja is in Calcutta where more than 2000 pandals (temporary structures...like thrones) are set up for the populace to venerate. Durga Puja in Calcutta is often referred to as the Rio Carnival of the Eastern Hemisphere.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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!

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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.

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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)

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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.

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