BANGLADESH: Bangladeshis at Work—In the Food Chain
This portfolio brings together images from several sectors of food production in Bangladesh: The rice drying yards, set in northeastern villages surrounded by rice fields, where men and women continuously rake and sweep the rice and pack it into sacks. The workers live on site in hot and dark one room homes; children are omnipresent, playing now where they will likely spend the rest of their lives working. Next, a floating commercial vegetable market, with farmers arriving in boats filled with many varieties of freshly harvested vegetables, brilliant and sensuous in their varied colors, forms and textures. These were set up in impromtu displays on the sand, where they were examined, haggled over, and carried away in heavily laden baskets. Next, the sorting of the chili harvest, drying in the courtyards of northern villages; this followed by images of small poultry markets and abbattoirs/butcher shops scattered through various districts of Dhaka. Finally, a village factory making yoghurt by a traditional process, illuminated by shafts of light coming through the roof. Here the wood fires produced intense heat and acrid smoke, and the process of pouring the yoghurt into small clay pots to be set and sold created lovely patterns on the floor.