http://lightbox.time.com
April 25, 2013. Two victims amid the rubble of a garment
factory building collapse in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Many powerful photographs have been
made in the aftermath of the devastating collapse of a garment factory on the
outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. But one photo, by Bangladeshi photographer
Taslima Akhter, has emerged as the most heart wrenching, capturing an entire
country’s grief in a single image.
Shahidul Alam, Bangladeshi
photographer, writer and founder of Pathshala, the South Asian Institute of
Photography, said of the photo: “This image, while deeply disturbing, is also
hauntingly beautiful. An embrace in death, its tenderness rises above the
rubble to touch us where we are most vulnerable. By making it personal, it
refuses to let go. This is a photograph that will torment us in our dreams.
Quietly it tells us. Never again.”
Akhter writes for LightBox about the
photograph, which appears in this week’s TIME International alongside an essay
by David Von Drehle.
I have been asked many questions
about the photograph of the couple embracing in the aftermath of the collapse.
I have tried desperately, but have yet to find any clues about them. I
don’t know who they are or what their relationship is with each other.
I spent the entire day the building
collapsed on the scene, watching as injured garment workers were being rescued
from the rubble. I remember the frightened eyes of relatives — I was exhausted
both mentally and physically. Around 2 a.m., I found a couple embracing each
other in the rubble. The lower parts of their bodies were buried under the
concrete. The blood from the eyes of the man ran like a tear. When I saw the
couple, I couldn’t believe it. I felt like I knew them — they felt very close
to me. I looked at who they were in their last moments as they stood together
and tried to save each other — to save their beloved lives.
Every time I look back to this
photo, I feel uncomfortable — it haunts me. It’s as if they are saying to me, we
are not a number — not only cheap labor and cheap lives. We are human beings
like you. Our life is precious like yours, and our dreams are precious too.
They are witnesses in this cruel
history of workers being killed. The death toll is now more than 750. What a
harsh situation we are in, where human beings are treated only as numbers.
This photo is haunting me all the
time. If the people responsible don’t receive the highest level of punishment,
we will see this type of tragedy again. There will be no relief from these
horrific feelings. I’ve felt a tremendous pressure and pain over the past two
weeks surrounded by dead bodies. As a witness to this cruelty, I feel the urge
to share this pain with everyone. That’s why I want this photo to be seen.
Taslima Akhter
is a Bangladeshi photographer and activist.
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