Portraits
Results of Asian Press Photo 2023
Gold
Living with the dirt
Child laborers are seen working for very low wages in the pollution-prone areas of Chittagong's waste dumping in the Halisahar area of the Bangladeshi port city of Chittagong. Among them is a child laborer standing in the city's largest garbage dump. Children spend the day collecting recyclable materials from these garbage piles and depositing them at the scrap store. As shopkeepers, they work here all day and take extreme health risks.
Silver
Smile of happiness in the midst of sadness.
Safayet Hossain Shanto, Bangladeshi
Silver
Affected by floods
Muhammad Amdad Hossain, Bangladeshi
Houses are overflowing due to flooding due to heavy rains. Inside a half-submerged house in the Taherpur Union of Sunamganj, a district town bordering Bangladesh, a woman stands stunned amid a raft of bananas. which is their only means of transportation.
Bronze
A family lost a husband and child in a chemical explosion
Mohammad Shahnewaz Khan, Bangladeshi
In December 2021, Rahima (20) was married to Monir (30), who had been working as a crane driver in the "BM Container Depot" for the last 6 years, who went missing at the depot in the aftermath of the fire and subsequent explosions. Rahima is currently 5 months pregnant. Less than seven months into the marriage, she is now speechless, like a statue, when she hears her husband's name on the list of those missing in the worst chemical explosion in the history of Bangladesh. There were tears in her eyes, but there was no response for days after days. Note: More than a month after the disappearance; DNA tests identified her husband's charred body parts. In the picture, a mobile can be seen in Rahima's hand, where her husband's wedding photo is displayed. On the other hand, her mother cried holding her husband's picture. This photo was taken on 07 June 2022, Fakirhat, Chittagong, Bangladesh.
On the night of 4 June 2022, a fire broke out at a Dutch-Bangladeshi joint venture container depot called BM Container Depot, (BM Container Depot handles most of the country’s ready-made clothes, exports to the West ) & subsequent explosion (because the depot containers contained thousands of gallons of hydrogen peroxide), were killed at least 51 people & over 200 people injured (according to Bangladeshi English language Daily Newspaper: 'TBS', 'New Age' & 'Dhaka Tribune'), including 10 firefighters (according to Fire service). Of the 200 or so injured 50 were rescue officials, police said. This deadly blaze, one of the worst in industrial fire-prone Bangladesh’s history. It took about four days to put out the blaze.
Depot authorities say they are allowed to keep chemicals. The Chittagong office of the Department of Explosives says that after the fatal accident, they first came to know that chemicals were kept there. Fire service says no one reported the hydrogen peroxide at the depot. Reality is; hidden in the depot container was the deadly hydrogen peroxide, which the owner didn't sense the need to inform anyone, not even the firefighters.
This family picture represents the hundreds of families affected by the deadly, industrial fire-prone Bangladesh.
Bronze
The masked family group photo
Dipayan Bose, Indian
Pilgrims wearing face masks while waiting outside the temporary tent at Gangasagar transit camp in Kolkata. Gangasagar Mela's preparation was initially put on hold due to a petition urging to stop this year's annual pilgrimage fair in light of the reported Covid-19 Omicron variant cases in West Bengal and the country. Calcutta High Court gave a go signal to proceed with the Gangasagar Mela provided with certain restrictions.
As India has already faced the deadly impact of Coronavirus during the second wave of Covid-19 in 2021, lakhs of people passed away due to insufficient medical resources, and most importantly the virus was widespread just after the Kumbha mela and other religious gatherings. Hence, permitting similar public gatherings for a festival was a tough call for the ruling Govt. Even some of the public health sectors opposed and urged to stop the festival. But due to religious attachment & sentiments of people, the High court gave the permission at last. Especially in countries like India where people belong to various religions, it is very difficult to restrict one particular religious festival for health awareness.
Bronze
Victim of Chemical Explosion
Mohammad Shahnewaz Khan, Bangladeshi
The day after the explosion at 'BM Container Depot' in Sitakunda; Volunteer rescue workers rescued a charred body from the blast site, the fire was still burning & there was a possibility of more explosions. A volunteer group named 'Gausia Committee' were seen risking their lives to carry out the rescue operation without any protection before a highly trained firefighter’s team from Dhaka reached the spot. This photo was taken on 05 June 2022, BM Container Depot in Sitakunda, 40 km away from the port city Chittagong, Bangladesh.
On the night of 4 June 2022, a fire broke out at a Dutch-Bangladeshi joint venture container depot called BM Container Depot, (BM Container Depot handles most of the country’s ready-made clothes, exports to the West ) & subsequent explosion (because the depot containers contained thousands of gallons of hydrogen peroxide), were killed at least 51 people & over 200 people injured (according to Bangladeshi English language Daily Newspaper: 'TBS', 'New Age' & 'Dhaka Tribune'), including 10 firefighters (according to Fire service). Of the 200 or so injured 50 were rescue officials, police said. This deadly blaze, one of the worst in industrial fire-prone Bangladesh’s history. It took about four days to put out the blaze.
Depot authorities say they are allowed to keep chemicals. The Chittagong office of the Department of Explosives says that after the fatal accident, they first came to know that chemicals were kept there. Fire service says no one reported the hydrogen peroxide at the depot. Reality is; hidden in the depot container was the deadly hydrogen peroxide, which the owner didn't sense the need to inform anyone, not even the firefighters.