Amrao Manush, The Pavement Dwellers by Shehab Uddin (August 18, 2009) 
(5 votes, average: 3.60 out of 5)
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curator statement
Shehab used to be called 'Pakhal' (caretaker of birds). He was dedicated to bird photography. And then we saw his metamorphosis. From a photojournalist to a successful documentary photographer. His work Amrao Manush was part of our Chobimela festival this year. Powerful work. Deals with uprooted people. Candid but coated with emotion. Shehab, in this work, has been able to convert poverty from a photogenic competition to a reality show. A S M Rezaur Rahman is the head of operations at Drik and curatorial director of Chobi Mela - International Festival of Photography.
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Poll results
Our poll "A photo essay always needs a great written story" closed. 267 people voted, 28% agrees, 72% disagrees. 233 people answered our follow-up question "Are you a photographer?" 82% indicated they are, 18% said no. Initially, negative answers to question #1 were almost 100% as was the pecentage of photographers among respondants. Then, when the level of non-photographers started to rise, the percentage of people indicating good text is always essential started to rise too. This seems to indicate that non-photographers think that adding good text to your photo essays is essential. In my opinion: if you want non-photographers to dig your work, you know what to do...
Posted in category 646
Our poll "A photo essay always needs a great written story" closed. 267 people voted, 28% agrees, 72% disagrees. 233 people answered our follow-up question "Are you a photographer?" 82% indicated they are, 18% said no. Initially, negative answers to question #1 were almost 100% as was the pecentage of photographers among respondants. Then, when the level of non-photographers started to rise, the percentage of people indicating good text is always essential started to rise too. This seems to indicate that non-photographers think that adding good text to your photo essays is essential. In my opinion: if you want non-photographers to dig your work, you know what to do...
15,000 to 20,000 people sleep and spend the day on the pavements of Dhaka city. These are some of the most vulnerable people in the country, with few assets enabling them to cope with life and a political, social and economic context that virtually ignores them. Pavement dwellers are engaged in a variety of money-making activities, including being porters in transport centers, labourers unloading trucks in markets, rickshaw-pullers, maid servants, sex traders and solid waste recyclers. These people are deprived of basic necessities like food, shelter, health, and security. They are conscious about their identities as human beings, although they are living an inhumane life. ‘Amrao manush’ is a Bangla phrase that means "We are humans too". The name was proposed by two women pavement dwellers from separate locations in Dhaka. From 1996 to 2007 the number of pavement dwellers increased at about the same rate with the increasing population of Dhaka, from a little over 7 to 10 million presently. A significant cause of the city’s rapid population growth is rural to urban migration, including both people being pushed out of rural areas because they have lost resources to floods, debt or other disasters and people being pulled to Dhaka by the promise of better opportunities. Now is the right time to think about this community of victims swept behind by the seemingly unstoppable tide of urban migration.
Shehab Uddin (1971) lives and works in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
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Posted in category 646
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