Death Traps
The two-week-long photography exhibition by Abir Abdullah, which began on April 10, was inaugurated by Khushi Kabir, Coordinator of Nijera Kori and Nurul Kabir, Editor of New Age. It ushered in many photography enthusiasts at La Galerie, Alliance Française.
Bangladesh is successful in exporting garments after China, bringing in 19 million dollars. But factory fires have remained a major dark spot in the otherwise success story. The official death toll in the Tazreen factory tragedy was 1017; although Abir says that the authorities made a lot of bodies disappear, making the chaos look like some odd ball game of disappearing bodies. There are smoke and fire as well as helpless people in all the 33 pictures exhibited in the show.
In the slums, says Abir, fire creates further havoc. Slum dwellers remain among the capital's most vulnerable people. Unlike their middle class counterparts, they have no one to save them in case of a disaster.
In the same way, textile workers take immeasurable risks, says Abir. Twenty one workers were killed at the “Garib and Garib” factory in Gazipur.
Infernos are seen in shopping malls, and garment factories, says Abir. When he photographs a charred face-- Abir does not know her name—he thinks that she may have been a wife or a mother or a daughter—and now a corpse. Abir says that he felt grief and anger. He knew that the news agencies would clamour for the photograph. People are known to be important, once they make the news headlines, after having being ignored all their lives, Abir complains bitterly.
He wants photography to raise global awareness, and he wants powerful global brands like Nike, and Disney to pay fair prices for the goods that they get.
“I want to bring an end to the exploitation of three million workers, 60 per cent of whom are women, toiling away, endlessly, behind the scene," he says.
Abir says that he began his quest in 2005, when he went to cover a fire in a garment factory. “I found that fire is a common incident in Dhaka. I have decided to document this issue as it is an important one; this is not only because of the fire, but because of the protection system that we get from the state."
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