Bangladesh is big, bustling, cities and ports, AND small, scattered, subsistence villages, AND tremendous natural terrain (see the Sundarbans, home of the Bengal Tiger). It is also ingenuity and enterprise ‒ BRAC and Grameen Bank are the most renowned of numerous examples ‒ and it is hard-working in the rawest sense (goods, such as multiple refrigerators and sewing machines, can be seen being pushed or cycle-pulled over miles, at times while barefoot, by as little as 1-2 people on wheeled carts ‒ and the value for this labour is far from commensurate).
Sonar Bangla is Alice in Wonderland’s, ‘I believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast’ multiplied by a hundred. It is a country to be viewed with the eyes, mind, and heart wide open, and with an approach of awareness and adventure as you wander and learn of and learn from all its complexities.
Chanchala and John are aware that theirs is an outsider’s lens upon a country and their work should be viewed in that light. They also know Bangladesh to have some incredible home-grown talent of much greater repute and would encourage you to explore further starting with the following:
Saiful Huq Omi – National Geographic awarded, international photographer whose six years of work on the stateless Rohingya refugees of Bangladesh and Myanmar is astoundingly devastating. He also has incredible work from the ship-breaking yards of Chittagong.
Taslima Akther – she is the documentary photographer behind the haunting photo of a couple found buried in an embrace in the rubble of 2013’s Rana Plaza garment building collapse.
Shehab Uddin – former photojournalist lived with families at various levels of poverty and worked with them to bring to life their daily experience in a powerful and informed collaboration.
Shamim Shorif Susom – Bangladeshi aviator captures breathtaking views of the Bangladeshi landscape from above.
Tania Rashid – Tania is a Bangladeshi-American former correspondent with Vice News and now with Nat Geo. Her inside look into Bangladesh’s largest brothel-village Daulatdia, her work on violence against women in the remote villages of Bangladesh, her election violence reporting and more provides access and insights you wouldn’t believe.
You can find more of Chanchala and John’s photos from Bangladesh and other travels on Instagram: grlwhocntbestill and jestanlake.