People of SylhetFebruary 2009

In Sylhet

I spent most of February 2009 in Sylhet, with the NGO Friends in Village Development Bangladesh, which I had helped set up in 1980.

People around the FIVDB campus became used to my walks, twice a day, in the surrounding villages and forests.

There is no common theme except the dignity of the poor. I arranged the photos in pairs, to ease orientation in realms that may be foreign to many, and still are to me.

Aldo BeniniDhaka, 11 March 2009

Lives under supervision

A madrasa lesson,

a glimpse over the wall

Adolescent girls

One holding on to her childhood,

the other surveying the prospects before her

Struggling with the elements

Melting the tar,

fishing out the pond

Struggling with the burden

Bookshelves appear out of nowhere in the forest

Walking to the construction site

Boss and worker

The village entrepreneur who got the bid for the tarmac road

The woman who sweeps the road before the pouring

Farm and factory

He bid on the price of cauliflower

The ceramic tile packers

Getting us food and drink

Tea for the poor man

Justice in peanuts

Disappearing in the forest

At dusk, returning to invisible

Begging the trees for sustenance

The beauty of this woman, above her destitution and desolation, stunned me.

If only I were gifted enough to tell the stories that she and the others carry about them.

Thank you for paying attention.