Monday, March 22, 2010








I'm writing this post for the third time, from Dhaka, Bangaldesh. Everytime I finish uploading pictures the power goes out and I have to start all over again.

It's been a long time since I posted. After Jharia I stopped for few days in New Delhi to relax and regroup, then took a week to travel to Cox's Bazar, the tip of Bangladesh that borders Myanmar, stopping along the way in Calcutta and Dhaka. I started to shoot a project for a few days and then was called to Chittagong to work on something else.

I'm feeling a little burned out from all the goingoinggoing, train bus train boat bus boat, but I'm loving this country. In India the first question I am asked on the street is, "are you single?" here in Bangladesh it's "what do you do? what is your degree?". For all the poverty that exists here, it's clear that the people want to work harder for something more. There are billboards up everywhere, even in the most rural places I've been, advertisting for schools, universities, tutoring, all kinds of education. There are over 17 daily newspapers in this tiny country. The friendness and hospitality of the people (especially coming from New York City) caught me off guard and is something I've never experienced anywhere else. I arrived at the bus station in Dhaka to find everything written in Bengali, wandered around looking lost, and a wonderful little family plucked my ticket out of my hand, directed me to the bus and even helped me book a room a hotel when we arrived.

Here are a just a few snapshots from the past weeks, since I'm still mid-shoot on two different projects. A sort of 'state fair' in Chittagong, my first England vs Bangladesh cricket match, and a little traffic in Dhaka.