Ismail Ferdous Tells a “Forgotten Story” in Award-Winning Photos
Along the coast between the Bay of Bengal and southern Bangladesh lies the Sundarbans, a vast stretch of woodland and wildlife covering more than 6,200 square miles of land and sea. Home to the world’s largest mangrove forests, the region is also a hotspot for extreme weather. In 2007, Cyclone Sidr struck the entire southern coast, killing more than 3,000 people, according to Bangladesh officials. It was followed by Cyclone Aila, in 2009, which environmentalists say submerged the Sundarbans region in more than 20 feet of water.
Since 2011, Bangladeshi photographer Ismail Ferdous has been documenting the aftermath – what he calls a “forgotten story.” His photos detail the struggles of the affected communities, well beyond the gaze of the world’s media.
“I wanted to tell the stories of these people after they elapsed from the viewer’s mind,” Ferdous explained, in an email sent from his home base in Dhaka.
His work landed him InterAction’s Effective Assistance Photography Award, which honors photos focused on humanitarian and development work. He is among seven InterAction award honorees who will be recognized at the annual Forum, taking place April 29-May 1.
As a child, Ferdous would play with his father’s old camera, memorizing the exposure settings. But it wasn’t until the age of 19, when studying at business school in 2008, that he became serious about pursuing photography as a profession. Now in his early twenties, Ferdous is already battle-hardened to adversity, having witnessed famine and other hardships. Stirred to action in the midst of such challenges, he began telling these stories with his camera in 2009.
For Ferdous, photography is all about telling the stories of people and their surroundings. Photos may not be able to “change the world,” as he puts it, but they can “scratch an unscratched surface,” drawing attention to what was previously ignored.
This desire to tell stories led Ferdous to Satkhira district, one of many areas around the Sundarbans devastated by Cyclone Aila. The Sundarbans project was a long-term one, with Ferdous preferring to establish closeness with his subjects. Marie Monteleone, a freelance photo editor, says this is revealed in an intense empathy for the people he witnesses and their stories of destruction and resilience.
“His voice carries with it so much heart and dedication for the people of the Sundarbans,” she notes in an email. “He speaks of the history and story of the people he photographs as if he was one and the same.”
In the town of Gabura, Cyclone Aila’s shadow can be seen etched into the landscape, transforming not only the local ecosystem but the lives of those who depend on it. Flooding has ruined the land, clogging the soil with salt and destroying essential infrastructure.
The winning entry in InterAction’s 2013 photography contest, chosen from more than 300 submissions, captures what remains of the land. Chan Mia, a resident of the town, surveys the paddy fields he lost to Aila, along with his family graveyard. He cuts an anxious figure, waiting only for what comes next. Hope remains for the residents of Satkhira, as NGOs work to mend broken dykes and help people collect rainwater. But Ferdous says underlying socio-economic conditions have yet to be addressed. Wealthy landowners have moved in, taking advantage of the salt-clogged soil to establish huge shrimp farms. The majority of people are left unemployed and unable to return to rice farming, Ferdous says.
In the years since Aila struck, these residual effects are keenly felt. The long-term consequences are as important for Ferdous to articulate as the initial destruction, although he admits this has its difficulties.
“It was very challenging to start telling the story of this people in 2011 when all the wrecked conditions are more concealed inside their lives,” said Ferdous, who calls Bangladesh a “frontline victim of climate change.”
Vulnerable populations like those in the Sundarbans continue to pay the price for environmental degradation. Their stories represent a window into the very real and present threat of climate change. It is a subject Ferdous is keen to see more fully depicted.
“The people are the core victims of this phenomenon,” he said.”Stories about climate change should be spoken of more loudly from all parts of the world.”
Ferdous, who has plans to take his camera abroad, may be the one to do it: “I’m always ready to travel anywhere in the world, wherever my story will take me.”
Ellis Tsang is a recent graduate of the University of Sheffield, where he completed a Masters in Global Journalism. He currently supports InterAction’s communications team as an intern.
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