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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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