Category Archives: Photography
People Growing Up With Their Pets
Survivors by Ken Hermann and Tai Klan
Umma Aysha Siddeke Nila
Name: Umma Aysha Siddike Nila
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Attack date: 19/02/2008
Reason: Marital dispute
Relation with the perpetrator: Husband
Legal condition of the case: Case is in High Court for appeal but pending due to financial and bureaucratic problems.
Her story by ASF:
Nila was only 15 years old when all of her face and parts of her upper arms were burnt by acid. Nila’s aspirations in life until that point had been simple; she had wanted to excel in her studies and one day dreamt of becoming an actress. She used to learn classical dancing and singing. Even today, four years after her attack, Nila’s delicate gestures show that Nila is still a dancer at heart. The after effect of the attack has been that Nila does not regularly learn dancing and singing and only practices during her leisure time. However, despite all adversities and even after missing 5 months of school because of her treatment, she took her Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSC) and achieved an A grade.
Nila had always been a pretty girl and when Akbar Hossain Jilhuq, a man who was 20 years older and visiting home from Saudi Arabia, saw her picture he was smitten and determined to marry her. Both Nila and her mother agreed that she was not old enough to marry and immediately refused the proposal offered, but through other family members Jilhuq convinced Nila’s father. Nila kept refusing even though her parents did not give weight to her wishes. Nila’s mother had said that Jilhuq had always held a grudge over the refusal. Eventually she was forced into marrying Jilhuq who left almost immediately for Saudi Arabia. They had often argued about Nila’s refusal to go abroad before he had left. Even though he kept in touch over the phone with Nila, their relationship never improved and she had never wanted to go abroad or stay at her in-laws home. She had remained for 3 months at her home when one day saying that he would only take her for a few days, her father-in-law came and took her to her in-laws home. Nila was not allowed to come back home after that and after 10 days her husband returned from abroad. They kept trying to force her to go abroad to which neither she nor her parents agreed. Nila’s father called Jilhuq and told him that he would come to take his daughter home the next morning. On the same day in the depth of the night, 18th February 2008, Jilhuq threw acid and burnt Nila.
Looking around Nila’s room now you immediately know that she is a studious girl. A large study table that is piled with Business and Management books dominates the room. She is doing her Bachelor of Business Honours in Finance and is currently in her second year of studies. The Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF) field team went and visited her at her home in Sirajganj and also met her again at the Manab Mukti Shangstha (MMS) where regular community clinics are held for survivors. MMS is an affiliate organization of ASF that assists acid victims and survivors and provides a contact point to bring victims to ASF’s Jibon Tara Clinic in Dhaka city for treatment. Nila addresses the crowd and introduces herself, everyone already knows her though because she has become a focal representative for survivors in Sirajganj. Nila has been working for over 3 years with SHARP another NGO that along with ACTION AID organizes counselling meetings and other forms of support for survivors. This has allowed Nila to stay in touch with her community and fellow survivors.
Abdul Kader
Abdul Kader
Name: Abdul Kader
Age: 48
Occupation: Muezzin
Attack date: 30/07/1987
Reason: Land dispute
Relation with the perpetrator: Cousin
Legal condition of the case: Case filed in 1987 but no subsequent action taken.
Mokammala Rita
Name: Mokammala Rita
Age: 43
Occupation: Employee of ASF
Attack Date: 16/04/1998
Reason: Victimized as her sister (Runa Laila another survivor) rejected love proposal
Relation with the perpetrator: Neighbor
What is the legal condition of the case: The perpetrator has been punished by the rules of Bangladeshi Law.
Ayesha Akter
Name: Ayesha Akter
Age: 27
Occupation: Employee of ASF
Attack Date: 26/04/2000
Reason: Rejection of marriage proposal
Relation with the perpetrator: Distant grandfather
What is the legal condition of the case: Perpetrator has been punished by the rules of Bangladeshi law.
Monira Begum
Monira Begum
Name: Monira Begum
Age: 24
Occupation: Student
Attack date: 05/03/1998
Reason: Revenge for previous conflict
Relation with the perpetrator: Father’s employer
Legal condition of the case: The perpetrator has been punished by the rules of Bangladeshi law.
Her story by ASF:
At the age of 9 years old, Monira’s life had already been decided for her. Her parents made arrangements with the parents of Swapan Gazi, agreeing that Monira would marry Swapan when she turned 18 and could legally marry. Swapan lived in the same neighbourhood as Monira and soon began pressuring her family to move her over sooner. When Swapan stole Monira’s father’s rickshaw – he refused to give away his daughter to Swapan.
That same night on 5th March 1998, Swapan threw a glass of acid on Monira’s face and changed her life forever. The left side of her face and the upper part of both her breasts were badly burnt by the corrosive acid. She was only in Class 3 when the incident occurred.
The Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF) arranged for Monira to travel to Spain for reconstructive surgery. On the day that Monira was scheduled to fly there was a transport strike, but her father pedalled his rickshaw nearly 30 km to Dhaka city so that his daughter could catch her flight. Monira came back from her surgery with renewed hope for her life. She has a bubbly and happy personality with no reservations about talking to people about her experiences. She worked with fellow survivor Peyara Begum in UNICEF’s “Helping Acid Survivors” project and acted as a peer counsellor for local survivors in Gazipur.
Currently, Monira’s family is still in poverty and living in a poor area in Tongi, just outside of Dhaka city. But Monira is working hard to create a better future for herself, through connections and her qualifications from working with ASF. She is now training with a local NGO on Mother and Child care services. Monira has enrolled in Tongi Public College and has just completed the first year of her Bachelor’s degree in Arts. Monira is also very talented at embroidery and crafts and she hopes with the help of ASF she will be able to start making and selling her clothes on a larger scale. Monira knows that, though life has thrown many obstacles in her path, with the support of ASF she will always be able to persevere.
Popy Rani Das
Name: Popy Rani Das
Age: 22
Occupation: None, currently resides in ASF Hospital.
Attack date: 07/09/2009
Reason: Dowry
Relation with the perpetrator: Husband
Legal condition of the case: Case is active
Her story by ASF:
Popy lived with her mother and grandmother in a rented house in Kamalpur, Kishoreganj. Her father passed away, so she and her mother had to work to earn a living. When she was 21 years old, Popy married her husband Prodeep with her own will, after having a relationship with him. Before getting married, Prodeep told Popy that he didn’t need any dowry, he just wanted Popy. But right after the marriage took place, Prodeep demanded a dowry from Popy’s family.
Popy and her mother were both working at a private hospital. They were saving up their hard earned money for the future. When Prodeep demanded the dowry, they used their life savings to pay the dowry, which was a total of Tk 2,00,000. But this did not satisfy Prodeep. Popy’s mother told Prodeep to reconsider, because he had seen with his own eyes that this was the total amount available in their bank balance and the whole amount had been paid to Prodeep.
Prodeep’s greed was still present after draining Popy’s family’s life savings. He then demanded more money as well as 60 grams of gold, which together was an impossible sum of money for Popy or her mother to manage. Popy told her husband that there was no way she could manage such a large amount of money.
This was when the violence started. Prodeep became extremely angry at Popy, and beat her on a regular basis. Then Prodeep told Popy that if he married someone else, he would be able to get more money than she could give him. Seeing Popy as an obstacle to marrying another woman, Prodeep decided to take matters into his own hands. One night when Popy was suffering from fever, she asked Prodeep for a glass of water. Instead of handing her water, he handed her a glass full of acid. Unaware because acid is a clear liquid that looks just like water, Popy drank the acid. This caused severe damage in the inside of Popy’s mouth and her throat. Prodeep, thinking that this was enough to kill his wife, immediately fled after Popy drank the acid.
However, Popy was too strong to be killed by a sip of acid. The incident occurred in September 2009, after which Popy was taken to a local hospital in Kishoreganj. Popy’s cousin brought her to ASF in February 2010. She received medical treatment in ASF hospital. The nature of her injury meant that she had trouble ingesting food with her mouth and had to be fed with a pipe that directly went to her stomach.
Popy and her mother spent almost two years at the ASF Hospital, so they lost their jobs and their house in the village. A case was filed in the local police station but there were no updates. When ASF contacted the police station, they could not provide any information on whether the case went to court or the whereabouts of the perpetrator.
Popy was given Tk 30,000 as rehabilitation assistance in May 2011. Popy’s mother went back to Kishoreganj in November 2011 but Popy stayed back in ASF Hospital because she needed to be fed with a pipe.
Popy got admitted to Open University in April 2012 and was provided with Education Support. Popy still resides in the ASF Hospital because of the continuous care she needs, especially with food intake. She has a very thin stature because of her inability to eat and enjoy food. Popy spends her time helping ASF staff and is also known for her talent in embroidery work.
Monjurul Alam Mojnu
Monjurul Alam Mojnu
Name: Monjurul Alam Mojnu
Age: 48
Occupation: Day laborer
Attack date: 15/05/1985
Reason: Marital dispute
Relation with the perpetrator : Neighbor
What is the legal condition of the case: Running.
Shamim Sheikh
Name: Shamim Sheikh
Age: 45
Occupation: Employee of ASF
Attack Date: 01/08/1984
Reason: Revenge for engaging in extra marital affair
Relation with the perpetrator: Husband of the woman who had extra marital affair with victim
What is the legal condition of the case: Mutually resolved.
Runa Laila
Runa Laila
Name: Runa Laila
Age: 30
Occupation: Employee of ASF
Attack date: 16/04/1998
Reason: Rejection of love affair
Relation with the perpetrator: Neighbor
What is the legal condition of the case: The perpetrator has been punished by the rules of Bangladeshi Law.
Shamol
Name: Shamol
Age: 14
Occupation: Student
Attack date: 18/02/2002
Reason: Mother’s refusal of marriage proposal from perpetrator (i.e. was not main target)
Relation with the perpetrator : Neighbor
What is the legal condition of the case: Running.
From the shoot
Videographer Tai Klan and (almost hiding) Phorographer Ken Hermann
Can beauty prevail when innocent people are disfigured by acid attacks? Can they rise stronger than before, more empowered and determined?
Danish award winning photographer Ken Hermann and videographer Tai Klan travelled to Bangladesh to answer these questions.
Through the great efforts of the Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF) the numbers of acid attacks have gone down, however Bangladesh is a country still plagued by acid attacks. In many cases the attack comes from within the family, mostly due to disputes over honor, dowry, property or land. Women, men and children are left with the painful physical and mental scars that stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Focusing on the positive and aesthetic aspects of these otherwise tragic stories, Ken Hermann has created a strong portrait series, while Tai Klan takes us really close to the portrayed with his moving short documentary.
The project called Survivors is still work in progress. It will end up with 20 portraits and a web documentary video. The two artists are also working on an exhibition for the Copenhagen Photo Festival during June 6th-16th 2013.
For more information and to give your support, visit this site for their crowd funding campaign.
I Collect Gingers by Anthea Pokroy
Photographer Anthea Pokroy, ginger herself and based in Johannesburg, South Africa, created this cool photo project called “I Collect Gingers“. In two years, she has collected more than 500 portraits!
Children with Facial Paralysis by Sage Sohier
“Most people I photograph are acutely aware of their imperfections and try to minimize them. Some have confided in me that, in their attempt to look more normal, they strive for impassivity and repress their smiles. They worry that this effort is altering who they are emotionally and affecting how other people respond to them. While most of us assume that our expressions convey our emotions, it seems that the inverse can also be true: our emotions can, in some ways, be influenced by our facial expressions”, Sage Sohier says.
For the past three years, Massachusetts-based photographer Sage Sohier has spent time in a facial nerve clinic in Massachusetts capturing portraits of people with facial paralysis caused by either Bell’s palsy, tumors, strokes, accidents, or congenital nerve damage. This photo series called “About Face” offers what the photographer says is a fascinating view of two expressions at once, while honoring the courage required for one to cope with medical afflictions.
Rich and Famous – by Daniela Rossell
This photo series is called “Ricas y Famosas: Mexico 1994-2001” – and shows some “Rich and Famous” girls from Mexico. Photographed by Daniela Rossell.
75 Parisiennes by Baudouin
Le Petit Prince – A photo series with 12-year-old Lukas with Muscular Dystrophy
In the heartwarming photo series “Le Petit Prince,” 12-year-old Lukas is depicted leading the active life of an ordinary boy: playing basketball, skateboarding, and so on—all activities he cannot perform in real life due to muscular dystrophy. The series was created by Matej Peljhan, a Slovenian photographer and psychologist who specializes in photographic therapy. Peljhan focuses on people with special needs in his professional work due to his own life experience—he lost an eye and an arm in a childhood accident and endured years of rehabilitation as a youth.
What the World Eats (in a week) by Peter Menzel
Australia
Bhutan
Canada
Chad
China
Ecuador
France
Germany
Great Britain
Guatemala
India
Italy
Japan
Kuwait
Mali
Mexico
Mongolia
Poland
Turkey
USA
Such an interesting photo series!
“What the World Eats” is by photographer Peter Menzel. It shows us, what a family around the globe eats - in one week.
Food expenditure for one week of this USA family: $341.98
Food expenditure for one week of the Chad family: $1.23
Check out more prices and details here.
The photos are from Peter Menzel’s book Hungry Planet.
Toy Stories by Gabriele Galimberti
Stella, Italy
Taha, Lebanon
Talia, Algeria
Abel, Mexico
Alessia, Italy
Allenah, Philippines
Arafa and Aisha, Zanzibar
Bethsaida, Haiti
Botlhe, Botswana
Chiwa, Malawi
Cun Zi Yi, China
Davide, Malta
Elene, Georgia
Enea, Colorado, USA
Farida, Egypt
Jaqueline, Philippines
Julia, Albania
Kalesi, Fiji
Keynor, Costa Rica
Li Yi Chen, China
Lucas, Australia
Maudy, Zambia
Naya, Nicaragua
Niko, Alaska, USA
Noel, Texas, USA
Norden, Morocco
Orly, Texas, USA
Pavel, Ukraine
Puput, Indonesia
Radhika, India
Ragnar, Iceland
Ralf, Latvia
Reanya, Malaysia
Ryan, South Africa
Tangawizi, Kenya
Tyra, Sweden
Virginia, Utah, USA
Watcharapon, Thailand
This wonderful photo series is called Toy Stories and is by photographer Gabriele Galimberti.
“If Riverboom’s photographer Gabriele Galimberti had happened to shoot me, aged 6 and surrounded by my favorite toys, he would have seen the following: plastic medieval weaponry; assorted Lego (Space, Castle and Pirate); an inflatable Tyrannosaurus rex (punctured slowly into extinction); a Superman action figure (I lost it and hyperventilated with grief); a pair of cuddly rabbits (Sally and Billy); toy cars; a tiny guitar; a plane you launched with an elastic catapult; a replica pistol I thought my mum didn’t know about.
Everyone remembers their childhood toys. The fact that I can recall how most of mine tasted better than I can remember the names of my primary school teachers says everything you need to know about the universe kids inhabit. Indeed, when Galimberti hit upon the idea of photographing children from around the world with their toys, he was not expecting to uncover much we did not already know: kids love dolls and dinosaurs and trucks and cuddly monkeys, and will construct worlds around them before eventually, inevitably, disregarding them for ever. “At their age, they are pretty all much the same,” is his conclusion after 18 months working on the project. “They just want to play.”
But how they play can reveal a lot. “The richest children were more possessive. At the beginning, they wouldn’t want me to touch their toys, and I would need more time before they would let me play with them,” says the Italian, who would often join in with a child’s games before arranging the toys and taking the photograph. “In poor countries, it was much easier. Even if they only had two or three toys, they didn’t really care. In Africa, the kids would mostly play with their friends outside.”
Yet even children worlds apart share similarities when it comes to the function their toys serve. Galimberti talks about meeting a six-year-old boy in Texas and a four-year-old girl in Malawi who both maintained their plastic dinosaurs would protect them from the dangers they believed waited for them at night – from kidnappers and poisonous animals respectively. More common was how the toys reflected the world each child was born into: so the girl from an affluent Mumbai family loves Monopoly, because she likes the idea of building houses and hotels, while the boy from rural Mexico loves trucks, because he sees them rumbling through his village to the nearby sugar plantation every day.
Ultimately, the toys on display reveal the hopes and ambitions of the people who bought them in the first place. “Doing this, I learnt more about the parents than I did about the kids,” says Galimberti. There was the Latvian mother who drove a taxi for a living, and who showered her son with miniature cars; the Italian farmer whose daughter proudly displayed her plastic rakes, hoes and spades. Parents from the Middle East and Asia, he found, would push their children to be photographed even if they were initially nervous or upset, while South American parents were “really relaxed, and said I could do whatever I wanted as long as their child didn’t mind”.
With the exception of computer games, he noticed that toys haven’t really changed over the past three decades or so. And there is something reassuring about that. “I’d often find the kind of toys I used to have,” he says. “It was nice to go back to my childhood somehow.”
- Ben Machell, The Times Magazine
Drowning World by Gideon Mendel
Since 2007 photographer Gideon Mendel has visited flooded destinations around the world, like Great Britain, India, Haiti, Pakistan, Australia, And Thailand. The photo series, called Drowning World, is super cool, yet awfully tragical.
Identities – Before and After – by Ana Oliveira
This wonderful photo series is called Identities, and is made by London-based photographer Ana Oliveira.
Caged by Oscar Ciutat
This photo series by Barcelona-based Oscar Ciutat is called Caged.
“The project started by chance back in 2008. I was visiting the local zoo, which I hadn’t been to in ages, and started taking pictures of the captive animals, just like everyone else was doing. My attention kept being drawn to their eyes, which, to me, seemed very sad, and I ended focusing my camera on them. I was intrigued by whether my impressions would be apparent to other people in the images. I wondered if that popular old saying, referring to humans, that goes “the eyes are the windows to the soul” could hold true for animals as well.”
Delicatessen with love by Gabriele Galimberti
Albania
Algeria
Argentina
Argentina
Armenia
Bolivia
Brazil
Brazil, Florianopolis
Brazil, Rio
Brazil, Sao Paulo
Cayman Islands
China
Egypt
Ethiopia
Georgia
Haiti
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Italy
Kenya
Latvia
Latvia, Riga
Lebanon
Malawi
Malaysia
Malta
Mexico
Morocco
Morocco
Norway
Peru
Philippines
Philippines
Spain
Sweden
Thailand
Turkey
USA, Alaska
USA, Utah
Zambia
Zanzibar
Zimbabwe
Such a great photo series by photographer Gabriele Galimberti called Delicatessen with love.
“From Grandma with love. I will never forget grandma Sara’s artichokes. They have become a cult since when a famous Spanish cooking blog published their recipe, which I transcribed from memory, following the thread of the taste left in my mouth (just like Proust’s madeleine).
Gabriele Galimberti pays homage to all the grandmothers in the world and to their love for good cooking, starting from his own grandma Marisa who, before the departure for his tour around the world by Couch Surfing, took care to prepare her renowned ravioli. She was not so concerned about the possible risks or mishaps her grandson might face in his adventurous travelling worldwide, but her major worry was, “what will he eat?”. That is because only at home you can eat well and healthily. And above all, only your grandma (and sometimes mum) knows what is best for you. With the taste of his grandma’s ravioli in his mouth, Gabriele travelled around the world and, next to thousands of other adventures, turned into a curious and hungry grandson for the grannies of all the countries he visited. Appealing to their natural cooking care and their inevitable pride in their best recipe, common factors to all grandmothers in the world, Gabriele persuaded them to do their best in the kitchen.
This means moose stake in Alaska and caterpillars in Malawi, delicious, but ferociously hot, ten-spice-curry in India and sharks soup in the Philippines. He has come back with a cookery book of detailed recipes that mix love, photography and travel amongst the many exotic ingredients. Indeed, each for each grandmother he has produced a portrait of the cook, and easy to follow recipe and an image of the extraordinary and at times mouthwatering final dish. Buonappetito!”
- Arianna Rinaldo
“I’m Google” by Dina Kelberman – A Visual Exploration of Google Image Search
I’m Google is an ongoing digital art project by Baltimore artist Dina Kelberman that documents digital patterns through non-artistic photography found on Google Image Search. Note, that every single image share a slight visual characteristic with the image before it.
“I’m Google is an ongoing tumblr blog in which batches of images and videos that I cull from the internet are compiled into a long stream-of-consciousness. The batches move seamlessly from one subject to the next based on similarities in form, composition, color, and theme. [... ] I feel that my experience wandering through Google Image Search and YouTube hunting for obscure information and encountering unexpected results is a very common one. My blog serves as a visual representation of this phenomenon. This ability to endlessly drift from one topic to the next is the inherently fascinating quality that makes the internet so amazing,” Dina Kelberman says.
What Makeup Can Do
Yes. This is what makeup can do in half an hour…
Oh. And if you think some of these women look familiar,
I can let you know, that all of them are pornstars.
