Save the Children staff have an on going relation within the brothel, and I did not want to jeopardize that.From a technical point of view, I made sure that I had the lit window shutter in the frame to balance the scene.īut on this assignment, all the images of women and girls inside the brothel had to have consent, for two good reasons: The reason is that I want to document them without affecting the scene and behavior by waving a big camera in their faces (for technic tips please refer to my previous article).īabies and toddlers will be put under the bed while the mother is working, while older kids will be sent out of the room. I wanted to capture as much as possible but the freedom to photograph, as per a usual documentary assignment, is limited when you work for a child-focused NGO.Ī big part of my documentary images are taken while people are not aware that they are being photographed. I prepared myself as well as I could for this experience, but the reality on the ground is far sadder then I imagined. The horizon is slightly off due to this technique. This image was taken with the camera against my hip with eye focus and silent shutter. I had no choice in the matter, as the shack was so small that the door would not open any farther.īetter looking prostitutes make more money, hence their madam will give them a bit more money to decorate their shack and make it a more pleasant place to live. The door way is used to frame the girl (15 years old). The school offers a way out for many of the children, especially the girls, who are pressured to join the “work force.” An education gives them options to escape that life. In the past they had no school to go to because of their association to the brothel. The school is for the children born in the brothel. Fast-forward several months, and I found myself in Daulatdia on behalf of Save the Children, to cover the school that they support and the environment it is situated in. I am based in New Zealand, so I got in touch with an umbrella organization there (The Council of International Development) and gave member organizations a couple of months deadline to submit proposals for my work. I thought it would be fitting, as some of my income is generated from photographing in these “third world” environments.
#POTATO MUSH CLIENT AUTOLOGGING FREE#
Simple food is cooked on clay stoves fueled by wood in a common area between shacks.Īfter 15 years of photographing in South & South East Asia, I decided that it was time to give back by donating my time and skills and offering two weeks of free photography a year to an aid organization working in a deprived area.
#POTATO MUSH CLIENT AUTOLOGGING DRIVERS#
Lines of trucks queue to cross the river toward Dhaka and the drivers are the target clientele of the brothel. Most women and girls that end up in this shanty town brothel are trafficked from remote parts of Bangladesh and are slaves to the brothel owners that buy them from the traffickers.ĭaulatdia is located on the side of the Padma river, the Bangladeshi part of the Ganges, where ferries carrying trucks, buses and people across the river. The number of prostitutes there is estimate at 1,600 and the average age of new arrivals is 14. Daulatdia is a brothel town Bangladesh and is considered the biggest in the world.