WHEN ARTIST PUT THEMSELVES IN HARMS WAY TO PRACTICE THEIR ART

Rory Peck Award of Photography

Winner: Soumen Guha and Dipak Chandra Sutradhar

Hazaribagh: Toxic Leather

2012 Bangladesh

Rory Peck was  an Irish photographer that was killed filming during the Russian conflict of 1993by Yeltsin loyalist. He was later, posthumously, the Yeltsin Award for Personal Courage.

Soumen Guha and Dipak Chandra Sutradhar are two photographers who put themselves at risk to gain access to a leather factory in Bangladesh that had deplorable unsafe conditions for its workers.  As you watch the film, you will notice not only the horrific environment people are being ask to work in, but the way in which these two artist present the events to you.  The filming is exquisite, and done with such great artistry it pulls us in and smacks us right in the face with the dangerous, toxic environment these workers are being made to work in.  It disgust you, it pulls in your emotions and puts right in your face conditions no person should ever have to work in.  
Most artists art not ask to take such risks when we do our art, but we must honor and appreciate when artists chose to do this to educate us, enlighten us, and motivate us.  
The 2013 Awards went to Olly Lambert for Across Syrian Lines.

No matter where one sits politically or morally about any event, that artists take these risks to document and present life events that need to be seen, we must value and applaud their dedication to their art.  

Mohibul Limon, Photographer of the Common Man, Bangladesh

Innocence in Time                                Mohibul Limon, a photographer of  Bangladeshi 

There are some things a person cannot fake, it is the simple things that  show your true feelings.  But a photographer is like a lens to the soul, what they see you see.  Their eyes, their brain, their emotions and experience frame the shot and through the filter of their being you experience what they see.  I think people do not always understand that...a photograph is not just a picture that was in front of the person.  It is a scene from thousands of possibilities one could choose, the lighting, the angle, the composition, the relationship to the subject, the choice of that moment out of thousands, that one click, is taken by another being on this Earth that has assimilated his experiences, emotions and views into that one click on the camera.  And it is then we see through his eyes in a way only his lifetime can offer.  So I challenge you to think...how would a tourist have taken this shot, how would an advertiser taken this photo, how would a woman or man...or would they have even taken this shot.  Was it just Limon's love of his fellow Bangeladeshi people, the love of the simple innocence of his country that produced this picture.  As you look at more of Limon's work, I think you will see what I see...a man who has deep love of his people, all his people, a deep sensitivity into the soul of what makes the Bangladeshi special and different from all other peoples on this Earth.  Limon has the soul of a poet, a sensitivity so acute it makes one feel deeply for his people and hurt when he hurts viewing poverty or unfairness.  I will continue to post Limon's work as I process it.  The sending of one computer to another, with different operating systems and software programs has slowed the sharing some, but we will get it done so you do not miss this wonderful view of one mans love of his country and people.

The Photographs of Mohibul Limon

Photo by Mohibul Limon                                Ferry Seller                                 Bangladesh