I’ve passed the 3000 photo mark in Dhaka and sat down to see what ideas were captured and may be fruitful to persue. Here’s a rough listing of my notes:
- Burqhas. Images from Muslim countries, France outlawing the headscarf. It is so alien to us that we keep our distance, but there are people in there. Set of photos that shows that. It’s the eyes that matter. Osama’s wife on her visit to America was stared at (Steve Coll? Book). I want to bring the viewer closer than they’d ever get themselves.
- Portraits from afar. Center of frame. Dense surroundings. There is a controlled distance between the subject and the viewer. The subject has a context, but try to make the context irrelevant, mainly visual. or chaotic.
- Physical Effort (effort) - something that is missing these days from our overly mechanised life. What have we come from? Is it better? Men.
- Sari’s, colour, history of colour and pigments. Dark skinned yet a cacophony of colour. Really close in detail of sari, should still showing bodies and background. Salwars. Attention.
- Death of animals. A constant taking of life. The ritual of it. The final death throes. The kids and adults gathered around. The importance of food, the interest compared to the way we look at, or don’t look at the killing of animals in western cultures.
- Beggers/deformed. Something we eradicate or doesn’t belong. But here where there are so many crashes, so many crashes these people must live amongst them. A constant reminder of chance, of the capriciousness of life. The act of begging. The reactions of the givers. Also of difference with the homogenised clothing of the western world. As people get wealthier they get more like us. The poor keep their native dress, they can’t afford western luxuries. They can’t assimilate with modernity and it’s looks. There is a deep historical divide between the poor and the rich. Shoot from below so there is a gigantisism. Invert the perspective that the begger and giver usually agree too. The crazier they look the more sympathy they get.
- Religious old men. Beards. Toopees. White dishadashas. Who were these men when they were young. Were they always good? Regal. Contrast with surroundings.
- Sleeping in public. There’s a lot of it amongst the poor and homeless who use the street to live in. A culture of sleeping? Such little personal effects? Such little care for the self?
- Dressed up poor girls. Marrying early. What opportunities? The class of a person is very obvious. Would I need to be very obvious and have classier girls from Gulshan/Bonani in the same set perhaps?
- Kids. Careless abandon vs working, labour, lack of freedom. Inequality through kids. Fat rich kids vs poor fun kids?
- Rain. The opression, the freedom, the wealth of it. The disease etc. The overflow. This is in danger of being cliched though. Could work really well with close ups as people who are wet are rare back home.
- The labourers and how they work back in the tea gardens. Inequality. My personal history of growing up in the gardens. Always being separated, kept ‘clean’ from others. How communal they are. Take photos of Holi etc., festivals. This idea of community that is so alien for me.
- Really close details of people’s heads from the side (or from the front). See DSC6898. Similar to Modern Status. Will it have as much impact without most of the facial features if taken from the side?
Posted 2 years ago
