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Posts Tagged ‘color’

Victory Day parade

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

In honor of Victory Day, the students of AUW held a parade in the neighborhood around campus. Armed with signs, banners, and a great deal of red and green clothes and face paint, they marched out the driveway onto M.M. Ali Road and then made their away around the entire extended block (actually a triangle), singing and chanting the entire way. Unsurprisingly, the large group of vibrant vocal young women garnered a great deal of interest from the local residents, most of which stopped whatever they were doing as the procession passed, and some of which even got up and started to follow along the sides (taking as many camera phone pictures and videos as they possibly could along the way).

Photo taken in Chittagong, Bangladesh on December 16, 2009.

After the students (and several participating staff and teachers) returned to campus, they continued to celebrate in the AUW driveway for quite a while. They sang songs, recited poetry, and took many pictures to remember the joyous event. The excess of color, noise, and positive energy flowing out of the huge group was a great symbol of the massive potential contained in such a passionate female student body that the university is working to help develop and enable to flourish. I promise I am not getting paid to write that questionably run-on sentence! It is just undeniably inspiring to see the power of AUW students in motion, especially in mass.

Photos taken in Chittagong, Bangladesh on December 16, 2009.

Tags: auw, bangladesh, celebration, chittagong, color, holiday, locals, parade, photos, photos by dan, streets, students, women
Posted in bangladesh | 2 Comments »

Children of Chittagong, and more

Sunday, April 11th, 2010

Near the beginning of December, right after the big four day AUW special visitor event that I photographed (which I think for now I’ll just let slip into general unmentioned obscurity), I had the opportunity to once again go out into Chittagong with Mow (the student who took me to some of the slums and other interesting locations around the city). She had the goal of talking to some child laborers, and also revisiting the refugee camp that we had been to once before. We did both, and combined with a short walk I took afterwards around my immediate neighborhood, it all made for an interesting and colorful day. I think I’ll leave it at that for now and let my images do most of the talking.

Photos taken in Chittagong, Bangladesh on December 6, 2009.

Tags: animals, bangladesh, bengali colors, birds, bricks, chittagong, color, crows, dogs, green, kids, labor, locals, orange, photos, photos by dan, refugee camp, slums
Posted in bangladesh | 5 Comments »

When the animals were still alive

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

As I mentioned in my previous post, Denise Catie and I headed out early on the morning of Eid al-Adha to admire the many cows, goats, and sheep in all their decorated splendor before the sacrifices began. Once we stumbled into a residential neighborhood we had plenty of opportunity to do just that, and our mission was aided by friendly kids who were more than happy to lead us to all the biggest and most impressive cows.

It was hard to look into the animals’ faces knowing that they were all going to be killed in just a couple of hours time. They amounted to such a great volume of life filling the empty streets, and I couldn’t get over the fact that all that energy, that vital mass, and quite literally that organic material was about to be spilt, drained, and finished. It was a heavy notion to say the least. I’m sure my tendencies of projection and anthropomorphism were on overdrive given the charged circumstances, but at times it felt like you could could see in the animals’ eyes an understanding of why they were there and what was about to happen. One cow in particular certainly appeared to have no misconception about the day’s plans as it stubbornly resisted the efforts of a whole group of men to move it down the street to its final resting place.

Photo taken in Chittagong, Bangladesh on November 28, 2009.

Perhaps it was inspired by the texture of the cows’ hides or the striking contrast of their deep dark eyes, and maybe it helped me to emotionally distance myself from my subjects, but for one reason or another I shot mostly in black and white early that morning. As the day went on and the sacrifices began, I continued to shoot and view my images that way (although I had my camera record duplicate copies in color as well). I think it made the day easier for me to handle as it happened. Blood is not nearly as affecting when it appears as a mild shade of gray on an LCD screen, after all. (Consider this your second fair warning of some imminent violent imagery to come…)

Photos taken in Chittagong, Bangladesh on November 28, 2009.

Tags: animals, bangladesh, black and white, chittagong, color, cows, eid al-adha, goats, holiday, locals, photos, photos by dan, sheep, streets
Posted in bangladesh | 2 Comments »

Purple is Catie’s power color

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

On the first day of November (almost a month ago) Catie and I used up our last bucket of ColorBank paint – this time to paint one of our bedroom walls purple. I wasn’t sure about the color at first but I must admit it looks fantastic in the morning when the sun streams in through our balcony window. I’m kind of sad we’re out of paint to be honest. Maybe I can convince Catie to go back with me and get a bucket each of orange and green…

Tags: apartment, bangladesh, catie, chittagong, color, dan, paint, purple, stop-motion, video
Posted in bangladesh | 1 Comment »

My first Buddhist temple

Friday, November 13th, 2009

I certainly think the idea of “the journey is the reward” applied to our walking around Bandarban, but the destination wasn’t half bad either. Throughout the course of the day we were actually slowly making our way to Buddha Dhatu Jadi, the largest Buddhist temple in all of Bangladesh. As luck would have it partway through our journey a monk from the temple saw us as he started to pass by on a rickshaw so he stopped and decided to walk the rest of the considerable distance along with us as well as guide us into his temple. He was a very well educated man and an especially gracious host.

It was my first visit to a Buddhist temple and I found it to be a lovely place to enjoy a lazy late afternoon just as the sun began to set. The temple sits high on a hill up above the trees and the 360° view is spectacular. The 151 steps (if my memory serves me correctly) were a small price to pay for such a beautiful and peaceful spot.

Of course along with that tranquility must come a few bits of humor. It is still Bangladesh, after all! Actually the comedic moments started to rush in far before I had the chance to find any sort of peace or beauty. As soon as I started up the steps towards the main entrance and its magnificent golden archway, a couple Bengali tourist men asked to take their picture with me. I obliged with only the slightest feeling of surprise. Over the course of the next hour however I continued to serve as the caucasian spectacle prop for at least five more pairs of Bengali men who were visiting the temple that day. During the last experience I had an awkward moment where the man was standing very close to me on my side and I didn’t know where to put my hand, and when I started to adjust its position my new friend interpreted my move as an indication that I wanted to hold his hand (something that is very common for male friends to do in Bangladesh). So we held hands, and his friend took the picture. I wish I had a copy of that one.

My other source of amusement came from the inside of the temple itself. I had heard that the Buddha statue inside is actually the second largest in the entire country. It didn’t seem like everyone gets to go inside, but our monk friend opened it up for us. I was expecting something quite grand, so I must admit I had a hard time holding back my laughter (merely from pure surprise) when I walked in and saw the statue of Buddha decorated behind with flashing colored LED lights that in my opinion had all the splendor and class of a Las Vegas casino. I mean no disrespect though! I guess I just have different taste than Buddhists in Bandarban.