Everything smelled of money
'In 1994 Drik Picture Library launched a unique initiative which involved
training children from poor, working-class families in Dhaka as
photojournalists.'. Their progress since has been remarkable -now 16 years
old, they are still learning but have had exhibitions, produced a
photographic calendar and are now collaborating on a youth-TV magazine
programme. Along the way, however, they have been thrown up against a world
of money and opportunity, aid agencies and big business, to which people
from their background never normally have access. The New Internationalist
Magazine recorded a conversation about their impressions of this brave new
world.
The following comments were made during an informal discussion involving
Faysal Ahmed Dadon, Hamida Akhtar Bristi, Abul Kashem, Refanur Akhtar Moli,
Rabeya Sarker Rima, Sopna Akhtar, Shefali Akhtar Shetu and Md. Zakir
Hossain. It was recorded/compiled by Manosh Chowdhury and translated by
Khademul Islam. It is also the introduction to the children's latest
publication. The year 2001 calendar of Drik Picture Library, an attractive
fourteen page full colour publication which is available at Drik and leading
stores.  Cost Taka 250.


We remember the time we had to go to some UNICEF meeting or other with
Bhai'ya (Shahidul Alam). It was in the Sonargaon Hotel. A huge, fancy
affair, where we had trouble walking, where our feet kept slipping on the
shiny lobby floor. A different world, the world of the rich. As if that
wasn't enough, Pintu had lost one of his sandals on the way there. We knew
we wouldn't be allowed inside in bare feet, but Bhai'ya told us that there
was no need to worry, that everything would be fine. So we walked on that
slippery floor and looked everywhere. Everything seemed so grand, everything
smelled of money.
People throw away so much money! In the middle of the hotel was a swimming
pool with almost-naked foreigners in it. We felt too ashamed to look at
them. When you have too much money what else can you do except go to a
swimming pool to show off, to say 'look at the money I have - I go swimming
in a big hotel's pool'. The rich and their airs! Coming out with their cars
just to show off to us, to the poor, to those of us who don't have cars. The
way they look at us!  And their talk: which is better, a white car or a
black car? It's unbelievable, the arrogance!
When we go somewhere people usually comment 'oh you poor deprived
children'. Nonsense! If they grab all the opportunities of course
we'll be deprived. First they take everything for themselves, then
they coo 'oh, you poor deprived child'. If we are not given a
chance, how can we make it? Our speech, the way we talk is offensive
to the bhadrolok, the upper class. 'Oooh, your
pronunciation,' they
sniff at us, 'the way your language wanders all over the place.'
We are poor. But the fact that we have cameras and know how to take photos
makes people uncomfortable. And so something simple becomes complicated.
People who see us keep asking us 'Accha, are these the cameras you use?'
But, you see, the camera's not the point.  The point is to take photographs.
It doesn't sit well with a lot of folks that the children of the poor should
have cameras. Makes you laugh. Once Bhai'ya took some of our shots to the
Lab for printing.
The people at the Lab thought that one of the photos was his.  'Take a look
at Shahidul Alam's work,' they said. Well, it was actually taken by Iqbal,
and when Bhai'ya told them so, they just shut up and wouldn't say anything
more. So what are we to make of this?  Everything's for the rich, their
fancy ways! Hamida and Rabeya have been abroad. The word has spread. That's
how they are introduced, as having gone abroad. We take photos. That is not
our identity however. The point is who has been abroad. Yet another way to
show off is English. You aren't anybody if you don't know English. As if the
real thing, the only thing, is not the work itself, but whether you know
English. It's such a fashion to speak it. They say you have to know it, but
what do the foreigners know? Shouldn't all those photographers and all the
other visitors who come here know Bangla?  Nobody tells them 'you should
know Bangla'.
We take photographs. Through our photographs we want to change things. But
lately the going has been tough. With the children of the wealthy it is
enough that they take photos, but with us it seems that we have to prove
ourselves by learning English too. What will happen to those
English-speaking friends who also carry on the struggle?  Will they learn
our language and join us? Oh come on! Will they not join ranks with us? What
then is our language of photography to be?



Shahidul Alam
Drik Picture Library Ltd.
House 58, Road 15A (New)
Dhanmondi Residential Area
Dhaka 1209, Bangladesh
Tel: (880-2) 9120125, 8123412, 8112954
Personal fax: 1 (208) 439-1167
Office Fax: (880-2) 9115044
URL: www.drik.net, www.chobimela.org, www.drik.net/pathshala

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