OLD DHAKA di MUNEM WASIF

Munem Wasif è nato in Bangladesh nel 1983. Le sue foto sono apparse nella stampa nazionale e internazionale inclusi Le Monde, Himal Southasian, Asian Geographic e Photo District News. Nel 2007 è stato selezionato per la World Press Photo Masterclass, Rotterdam, Olanda. Ha vinto la “Honorable Mention” nell’ambito del programma All Roads Photography indetto dal National Geographic per ill lavoro svolto sulla vecchia Dhaka. Ha esposto in Cambogia, in Iran, in Australia, in Giappone e in Inghilterra. Nel 2008 ha vinto il premio della città di Perpignan per il miglior giovane fotoreporter durante il festival Visa pour l’Image. Sempre nel 2008 si è aggiudicato il premio PrixPictet con un progetto sull’acqua in Bangladesh.


Located in Bonogram, these sets of buildings are set for demolition paving the way for new modern flats. The news does not rest well with Sumitra debi, who has been an inhabitant of this locality for sixty years. She thinks that demolishing the buildings will not just cause a loss in the locality but also damage the whole neighbourly spirit that is prevalent at the moment. It is a sign on the changing culture and times


Pintu, pictured here is one of the first people to voluntarily offer me his help. A uniquely colorful character Pintu and his group of friends, although more talk than anything else, still provided for a stretch of comic relief.


While people of the new generation would have numerous qualms about taking a bath together, in Old Dhaka this is almost a matter of course what with many families residing in one house.


Sunlight is reflected on a roti prepared by on a street side shop. Located in Shambaazar, Sadharghat the site of the largest wholesale market in the country, the day begins early for the people who live there.


A young mother cleanses her daughters hair of lice as they stand in the sunshine on what passes for their balcony. Such intricate relationships, a part and parcel of life in those parts, is fast becoming a thing of the forgotten past in the humdrum of daily life

Superman on the wall...

Stairs of an old building, shakraibazar.

A man is talking water from Kua (water tank).

The ferrywala is a lost part of our culture in these days of separate flats. It is still very much in vogue in Old Dhaka though. This man weighs up puffed rice and sells while the house-wife bargains. It is a scene lost these days


Life is a wheel or so they say and the grandmother helping her old husband to the bathroom while their grandchildren play by their side, show it better than anything else. The old man passed away fifteen days later but there are plenty of young to take his place.


Its midday and the truck driver is less than pleased at having to negotiate through such dreadful traffic. Loading and unloading goods are their daily jobs and although there are cows to help bear the weight it is not always the easiest of tasks.


This barber has been in work since Liberation which is as more than most of his customers can recall. He has no definitive structure in which he carries out his work but it is this very informality that is endearing. Early morning, with the river as backdrop and only his hand and eye to guide him


In the evening time a a gril is skipping in front of her house


The oldest gym in Dhaka and quite possibly the entire country. With old school Hindi music blaring loudly from the speakers and a poster of Sanjay Dutt adorned on the wall, these gym goers have about them a certain swagger that is catchy


Asif Azim, is a top ramp model of Bangladesh and has adorned almost all the glitzy showbiz locations. In another life though, he lived in Lalbagh and was one these very people. He is one of their very own and also one who provides an inspiration for the many who live here


A band plays before a wedding as people watch from their houses. Such scenes are still a novelty in those parts.


A joint family is ecstatic while celebrating Holi (the colour festival). Brother-in-law, Sister-in- law and wife of the house all celebrate showcasing the feeling of togetherness during a festival


A old woman sits by her window and applies oil to her hair.


Horses are taking rest in the open playground in Bakshibazar


The feeling of community togetherness is rampant in this picture as people flock to their rooftops to watch performers spewing fire from their mouths in Shakharibazar


A child hides her face as a Muharram procession goes by on the Hosnedalan avenue. Beyond are a score of women dressed in burkhas who disperse the moment I go to photograph them.


A mixture of the old and new. A butcher smiles as an ator dealer advertises his products in Koshaitoli, a local hangout for butchers. Pictured in his case are the youngsters who seem strangely smitten by it all


A labourer from a biscuit factory provides crumbs to pigeons during his break. He harbours a feeling for these birds and performs this daily ritual.


In the early hours of the morning shops are yet to be opened. A boy is throwing water on the street to settle the dust that will raise as soon as the daily activity begins


I took this picture in front of the gorgeous building called the Rose Garden (a pleasure lodge built by a Hindu zamindar in the late 19th century at K.M Das lane in the Narinda quarter of Old Dhaka and later purchased by Khan Bahadur Abdur Rashid) now used for filming of movies. It is one of the historical buildings of old Dhaka.

©Munem Wasif
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