' We were born here and will die here…'
20 images Created 29 Mar 2020
Abir Abdullah's engagement with Shakharibazar grew out of his first attempt to document the people and life in this area. It was during his course with Pathshala, the training cell of Drik, that Abdullah had begun his love affair with Shakharibazar. He didn't know that he was to record the recent collapse of a hundred years old building in the area that cost several lives. "I have been photographing Shakharibazar since 1999 as a three-year project titled 'Hindu Religious Festival' assigned by the World Press Photo Foundation.
During this time he developed a relationship through his camera with the people living in the area of Old Dhaka. The set of 12 photographs that will represent Abdullah in Chobi Mela III reveals his engagement with the people of Old Dhaka. He captures a Shakharibazar at its most vulnerable. The batch of photographs titled "We are born here and will die here" brings into view the Shakharibazar tragedy and reveals the people's struggle to get a grip of their loss frame by frame. "My work is all about the lives of these people. Just as I have captured a son in the tight clasp of his father's arms, both dead while remained imprisoned under the rubble for hours, I have also recorded a newborn being greeted by the family according to the tradition of the area," reveals Abdullah whose interest lies in the study of human integrity. He is fascinated by the resolve of the people of Shakharibazar, whose motto, as Abdullah had found out, is, "We are born here and will die here". "As the people of this area belongs to the religious minority, they are determined to live together even in the worst of situations," Abdullah let us know. Than he hastens to add, "…to them resistance has a different meaning every morning."
During this time he developed a relationship through his camera with the people living in the area of Old Dhaka. The set of 12 photographs that will represent Abdullah in Chobi Mela III reveals his engagement with the people of Old Dhaka. He captures a Shakharibazar at its most vulnerable. The batch of photographs titled "We are born here and will die here" brings into view the Shakharibazar tragedy and reveals the people's struggle to get a grip of their loss frame by frame. "My work is all about the lives of these people. Just as I have captured a son in the tight clasp of his father's arms, both dead while remained imprisoned under the rubble for hours, I have also recorded a newborn being greeted by the family according to the tradition of the area," reveals Abdullah whose interest lies in the study of human integrity. He is fascinated by the resolve of the people of Shakharibazar, whose motto, as Abdullah had found out, is, "We are born here and will die here". "As the people of this area belongs to the religious minority, they are determined to live together even in the worst of situations," Abdullah let us know. Than he hastens to add, "…to them resistance has a different meaning every morning."
