Silent Requiems

Ismail Ferdous talks to Conchita Fernandes about the dangers involved in forgetting and moving on,without any respite for those facing grievous loss.

- Ismail Ferdous

Without the aid of photographs, disasters end up being statistics; Numbers running so long that you lose all sense of its significance and impact.But with visuals, people are given a chance to see the event as more than just a number, and hopefully do something about it. 

Stepping into a War Zone

On 24 April 2013, after the Rana Plaza garment factory collapsed on its several occupants, there were a flock of photographers and reporters who rushed to the scene. One of them was Ismail Ferdous. As he neared the vicinity of the area, he was overwhelmed by the sounds of people screaming and crying, and the visual of the corpses hanging in between the beams of the structure. “It appeared as if I had entered a war zone. I was struggling to absorb it all. I couldn’t stop shaking during the first three to four hours of my time spent at the site.” In fact, as he climbed the walls and made his way through the debris to photograph the dead, the rubble underneath him continued to move.

Transcending the role of a Photographer

Ismail however, was undeterred by this. “There was no time to succumb to the trauma and grief. Instead, I focused on channeling my thoughts towards documenting the catastrophe,” he said. “I believe that when people are confronted with powerful imagery, they are presented with two choices—to either look away or address the problem. With my images, I didn’t just want to move people, but push them into taking action,” he added.