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spirit of survivors

The wind blows 260 km/h, the seawater rash 10-15 feet high. Thousands of people died, more then that lost in the sea. People lost their houses, castles, ripen crops of the fields. This entire thing happens in one night, in hours only. SIDR, one of the cruel Cyclones in Bangladesh history, attack in the costal area on 15 November 2007 at mid night. Hole country is powerless and in dark for 24 hour. No network connection, No TV channel, No radio, there were no way to know what happen in the costal areas.

I reached at Shoronkhola, one of the most damaged areas of costal reason after 3 days of SIDR with some of my friends. This is the first time I experience such a vast destruction of Mother Nature. Many people still searching their family members, all the drinking water of ponds were salty; human and cattle dead bodies are floating on the water. Father searching his daughter in the bush, son found his mother dead body that can merely recognized.

…. there are no place to bury the dead bodies….

….no food…. no drinking water…. no words…

….only the hidden tears …..

…..only the smell of the dead bodies…..

……flouting all over the wind….

But this is not the main story. I also discover how human fight against the nature; start new life from the destruction. To me this braveness and strongness of the coastal people is the true sprit of Human being.

Contact

nooralamdhaka@gmail.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/noor-alam-20a2ab6b/

Noor Alam is a freelance news and documentary photographer based in Dhaka,Bangladesh. He  was born in 1980, has finished his 3-year graduation program in photojournalism at PATHSHALA, South Asian Media Academy in 2008.Now work with The Guardian(UK)Majority WorldZUMA press International(US),Drik Picture Library(BD) as a contributor.He has also experience working in development sector INGO like UNICEF,UNDP,WFP,UK AID,US AID,BRAC,SWISS CONTACT,ACTION AID UK,GIZ.

Noor’s main interest in social documentary focusing on health, education, cultural and environmental issues.Noor’s works have been published in many Bangladeshi national newspapers and magazines, i.e. The daily Star, the daily New Age, The daily New Nation, The daily Ittefaq, the daily Prothom Alo and international publications including The Guardian(UK), Time Asia (Hong Kong), Himal Magazine (Nepal),TIF(Thalassaemia International Federation) Magazine(Cyprus),The Herald Newspaper, The Daily Record, Huffington Post, Himal Magazine (Nepal),TIF(Thalassaemia International Federation) Magazine(Cyprus).

Noor’s first solo exhibition Ballads of the Agonized Souls held at Zainul Gallery in May 2009, also a book with the same title launched, which depicts struggles of thalassaemia patients of Bangladesh.His second solo exhibition Tears on Highway held at Chobir Haat in November 2012. Besides, his photos have been shown in several group exhibitions, namely Morten Krogvold Students’ Works in International Photography Festival Chobi Mela IV at National Art Gallery,Dhaka, Something About Reflections at Alliance Française de Dacca, Our Stories: Middle Class in Bangladesh at the Goethe-Institute Dhaka, Lungo Di Fume Padma Group Exhibition of Photography at Central Library Riva Del Garda-Italy,Border Of Loneliness Group Photography Exhibition on Rohingya Crisis at Iranian Photographers House, Tehran-IRAN.

Workshop

2003: Portrait Photographyby portrait photographer Nasir Ali Mamun, Bangladesh

2004Composition & Visual Sensitivity -by fine art photographer Hasan                            

          Shorufordin Chandan, Bangladesh

2005: Photography & Globalization-by documentary photographer Devid H Wells,USA

2006: Photography & Aesthetics-by fine art photographer Morten Krogvold,Norway

2006: Reportage-Joint Collaborative Program between Pathshala, Bangladesh & Oslo

University College, Oslo, Norway by Witold J Krassowsky, Poland

2009: Representing Establishment in Bangladesh– by Roman Bezjak, Germany

2011: Personal Story Tellingby documentary photographer Shourab Hura, India

 Exhibitions


 2003– Portrait Photography

Group Exhibition of Photography

Goethe Institute Dhaka

2006– Something About Reflections

Group Exhibition of Photography

Alliance Francaise

Dhaka,Bangladesh 

2007–Group Exhibition Of Students

International Photography Festival Chobi Mela IV 

National Art Gallery

Dhaka,Bangladesh 

2009– Ballads of the Agonized Souls

1st Solo Photograpy Exhibition

Zainul Gallery

Dhaka,Bangladesh

2009Our Stories: Middle Class in Bangladesh

Group Exhibition of Photography

Goethe-Institute

Dhaka,Bangladesh

2010-Challenges of Resettlement

Group Exhibition of Photography

On The International Conference On Resettlement

Dhaka Sheraton Hotel

Dhaka,Bangladesh 

2011–4th show of Ballads of the Agonized Souls

14th International Thalassaemia Conference

WOW HOTE, Antalya, Turkey

2012Tears on Highway

2nd Solo Photography Exhibition

Chobir Haat (A Open Gallery) 

Dhaka,Bangladesh 

2013 Lungo Di Fume Padma 

Group Exhibition of Photography

Central Library Riva Del Garda, Italy 

2017Border Of Loneliness

Group Exhibition on Rohingya Crisis

Iranian Photogrphers House, Tehran 

Tears on Highway

early every morning, as i flip through the pages of the daily newspapers

i find bold headlines — “bus-truck collision at tangail”, “7 dead, 20 injured”,

“5 dead from the same family by private car-bus collision at sylhet”,

“44 people dead at chittagong as truck turns upside down into a ditch,

3 people in fatal condition………

everyday i see these news and I feel resentful, i feel loss, i feel empty, i feel helpless…….

again so many more lives lost before they flourished, so many more families losing their beloved one, so many more families losing their only earning member and turned poorer or penniless……..

i see nobody cares; neither do i, nor does my country……….

i am quite happy living my own normal life, i am quite relieved that i haven’t lost a beloved in these road accidents……..

fortunate me taking my morning tea, turning over and over the newspaper pages, thinking myself very lucky and living everyday of my life, yet dying every moment……..