Sharadiyo Durga Puja festival in Shakhari Bazaar, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2010 The last day of Puja called Doshomi where they drown their Goddess in the river. It?s called the ?Durga Bisharjon?. A man was dancing with the bowl of Dhuup while they were drowning the statue of their deity God Durga. Photo: Nafeesa Binte Aziz The final round on the river Turag in Ashulia before immersing the goddess into the water. Ashulia, Dhaka, October 2010. Photo: Saadul Islam Oh dear holy mother please take away my pains as the candle light washes away the shadows. Shakhari Bazaar, Dhaka, October 2010. Photo: R S Rahman
The II International Festival of Photography
MAN AND SEA
21.10-15.11.2010
Krasnodar – Novorossiysk. Russia
Belal going to work. Life starts very early in the Shipyards. Photo: Saiful Huq Omi
Bjerkely Bjerkely Folkeh?yskole and Pathshala collaborative programme?2010
Starts October 22, 2010.
A group of ten students, and Ivar Barane have arrived from Norway to collaborate with the 1st year 3rd Semester students of Pathshala.? The workshop will be held at Cox?s Bazaar. The Bjerkely group arrived on Friday, the 22 of October 2009 at 5.30am. They will be staying at the Ambrosia Guest House in Dhanmondi. The workshop will be conducted by Abir Abdullah, Munem Wasif, Andrew Biraj and Tanzim Wahab. Din M Shibly shall be the workshop coordinator.
Please note that all regular classes for the 1st year 3rd Semester student?s? will remain off because of this collaborative programme from October 22 to November 15, 2009.
Philip Blenkinsop a photographer from the celebrated photo agency NOOR, was presenting his work at Drik Studio in Dhaka on the 15th October 2010. This was the first of a regular lecture series organised by Pathshala alumni. Noor photographer Philip Blenkinsop presenting his work at Drik studio. Photo: Adnan Wahid/DrikNews
Photographers at Drik Studio at Philip Blenkinsop's presentation. Photo Wahid Adnan/DrikNews/Majority World Philip Blenkinsop at this presentation at Drik Studio. Photo: Wahid Adnan/DrikNews/Majority World
Sex worker introducing her self to client to get the best amount for a day. Doulodia, Rajbari, Bangladesh.
This year?s recipient is Masud Alam Liton, a student of Pathshala South Asian Media Academy in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He will receive $1,000 along with mentorship for the project from one LUCEO member. Below is a gallery of the images he submitted along with his thoughtfully written proposal. We would like to gratefully thank our judges Elizabeth Krist of National Geographic Magazine, Michael Wichita of AARP and Avi Gupta of US News and World Report for their time and insights and the wonderful folks at LOOK3/LOOKbetween for hosting our judging and allowing us to present this inaugural award. At brothel there are so many girl living as a sex worker, some of them under eighteen and totally forbidden to show their identity to outside. Doulodia, Rajbari, Bangladesh. “Masud alam Liton?s Requiem for Freedom won the 2010 Award. Gupta said that Liton?s work ?stood out because of the subtlety of moments and the diversity of images? in his ?well edited? submission. Krist added, ?I just loved the rhythm and pace of the edit. The images had a lot of energy and intensity. It was really memorable.? To read more about his project and see the images submitted, visit the Student Project Award page. Sex worker introducing her self to client to get the best payment. Doulodia, Rajbari, Bangladesh.
It should also be mentioned that the judging for this event was especially competitive. Bryan Anselm?s project proposal on the Srebrenica Genocide was a very close second. So much so that Michael Wichita generously offered an assignment to Mr. Anselm as a second prize. Congratulations to him and a heartfelt thanks to Michael Wichita for his generosity and amazing spirit.” Marriage in the brothel does not necessarily imply setting up house with a man; rather, it is often a way of confirming a relationship with a regular client. Doulodia, Rzabari, Bangladesh. From his Project Proposal
?For a human being, freedom is always a relative term. We all have the freedom to think as we please, but can we always express what we think? We are free to fly through air using planes and dive in the oceans using underwater equipment but we can never take off on our wings like birds or breath underwater like the fish. Freedom of Dancing Queen. Doulodia, Rajbari, Bangladesh
For the sex workers of Douladia Ghat, Rajbari, Bangladesh, freedom is a dichotomy. Their profession has freed the sex workers from the ordeals of poverty by demanding they give up freedom over their bodies. They are condemned to be free from average norms and restrictions because sex workers are not free to live in conventional society.
This dichotomy pervades every corner of the lives of the sex workers: They feel independent because they are earning money. But they have to turn the money over to the madam or the ?husband?. They feel happy because they have made new relationships, new sisters, and new families. But they are stuck inside their adopted community. Within the boundary of their community, they are free to dress and behave as they please. But if they should step outside, they have to cover their hair. They are free to love and marry whom they want. But they feel betrayed by the husbands who marry them for their earnings. They are free to strive to reach the top rank of their profession, a madam ruling over her own house. But their self-determination can take them only so far: they are always subject to the licensing powers and the corrupt practices of the police. They are a devout community, free to perform their religious rituals. But they are denied the right to be buried in a proper graveyard. In short, their lives encompass the heights of paradise and the depths of hell.
Yet they have one freedom remaining to them that asks no price: they are free to dream. They dream they are birds that go wherever their imagination takes them. They dream they are living the lives of their fantasies. Their dreams are requiems for true freedom. They Are free to dream. They dream they are birds that go wherever their magination takes them. They dream they are living the lives of their fantasies. Their dreams are requiems for true freedom.
This photo essay shows the lives of Bangladeshi women who are part of the commercial industry of their country and yet remain outside the mainstream life of their country. The ironies of their existence extend to their place in society. They exist ?in the flesh? and yet they do not exist in the ?mind of society.? Unless we are aware of their place among us, their lives among ours, how can we help them? That is my journalistic goal: to show society that they are more than ?just flesh?. They are human beings, regular teen-age girls, hopeful wives and mothers with rose-colored dreams just like any other woman.?
? Masud alam Liton
Winner in the Quality of Life group: G.M.B. Akash's picture titled Life for Rent (Child Sex Workers in Bangladesh). Fifteen year old Nodi works as a bonded sex worker in a brothel in Faridpur – she was sold to the brothel by her stepmother Picture: EPOTY.ORG / SPECIALISTSTOCK / BARCROFT MEDIA
