Bhuter beel (wetland) is situated at Terkhada upazilla in Khulna district. Only five years ago, it was a vast land for cultivation of different types of crops in the dry season. But now there is no cultivation due to water logging. Fishing and collecting waterlily have become the main sources of income for the people in this area. Torikul Isalm (25) used to cultivate crops five years ago in this area, now he lives on fishing. Some people have got involved in bird hunting, as they failed to find suitable alternative jobs. Thousands of people in this water-logged area have become unemployed as no initiative was taken by the government to address the problem. Local people are demanding immediate steps by the authorities to resolve the long-drawn issue of water logging. This story by Shaikh Mohir Uddin/DrikNEWS, is based on the feedback of the affected people, Khulna, December 2011.
The Rural Visual Journalism programme is an innovative multimedia project between Drik and Pathshala in Bangladesh and the World Press Photo Foundation in the Netherlands.
Author: Shahidul Alam
Time Magazine Person of the Year 2018. A photographer, writer, curator and activist, Shahidul Alam obtained a PhD in chemistry before switching to photography. His seminal work “The Struggle for Democracy” contributed to the removal of General Ershad. Former president of the Bangladesh Photographic Society, Alam set up the Drik agency, Chobi Mela festival and Pathshala, South Asian Media Institute, considered one of the finest schools of photography in the world.
Shown in MOMA New York, Centre Georges Pompidou, Royal Albert Hall and Tate Modern, Alam has been guest curator of Whitechapel Gallery, Winterthur Gallery and Musee de Quai Branly. His awards include Mother Jones, Shilpakala Award and Lifetime Achievement Award at the Dali International Festival of Photography.
Speaker at Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, Oxford and Cambridge universities, TEDx, POPTech and National Geographic, Alam chaired the international jury of the prestigious World Press Photo contest. Honorary Fellow of Royal Photographic Society, Alam is visiting professor of Sunderland University in UK and advisory board member of National Geographic Society.
John Morris, the former picture editor of Life Magazine describes his book “My journey as a witness”, (listed in “Best Photo Books of 2011” by American Photo), as “The most important book ever written by a photographer.”
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