Bird's eye view

During the London stint of the Greenpeace ship 'Arctic Sunrise', Greenpeace UK staged a choir concert aboard the ship in protest of the government's planned extension of the Trident nuclear weapons system. The choir performed a piece composed by Damon Albarn entitled "Five Minutes to Midnight". The performance represented a peaceful demonstration against renewing Trident and against Britain possessing nuclear weapons.

I found it hard to get a good angle on the choir and where it was performing from deck level, so decided to climb up into the crow's nest of the ship and shoot the whole scene from above. The result speaks for itself, although picky me - never happy - just wished the ship had turned around so I could have faced Tower Bridge in the background. Ah well, next time...

Milking it...

At the end of this truly exhausting week, I get an assignment to shoot at the London School of English, the world's oldest language school. It specialises in running English courses for professionals and businesspeople, and is - as most schools are - based on classroom teaching. Now call me unimaginative, but I tend to find that classrooms don't lend themselves to great pictures. So I decided to pop on a 100mm lens, and just concentrate on details...

London Fashion Week

Literally just off the plane from Bangladesh and Qatar, I jump into a hectic few days of covering London Fashion week for a German Sunday newspaper. The contrast could not be greater - from the chaos of Dhaka traffic, poverty and a sea of deeply religious people at the Ijtema, I land in the fake world of fashion with its entourage of guestlist nazis, skinny models and all kinds of self-important fashionistas.

In a way it was a good reality check and a funny experience to dip into (I wonder which experience I am now writing about - Bangladesh or Fashion Week?), as long as I'm not stuck in either of them. Luckily we were relatively free to chose whom or what we wanted to cover, so I attended a couple of shows (for old time's sake), and portrayed a wide array of people attending the event.

All aboard the crazy train

In early February, I joined up with some friends and went to the Biswa Ijtema, a large-scale Muslim gathering at Tongi, about 10 miles north of Dhaka, Bangladesh. With an estimated three million worshippers, it is the largest Muslim pilgrimage after the Hajj in Mecca. Roads leading to the gathering are blocked for vehicles and people either walk the 10-odd miles on foot (as we did), or they hitch a ride anywhere they can aboard one of the many trains running to Tongi Junction, the nearest rail station from where pilgrims proceed to the Ijtema.

On the last day of the Ijtema, the trains were by far the most spectacular sight I've come across in a long time - every square inch of space was utilised by the passengers, crowding the roof, hanging out of doors and windows, even sitting on the buffers and clinging onto the crannies of the locomotives as they slowly struggle on their way to and from Tongi. I thought I knew what overcrowding was until I saw these trains filled with keen worshippers eager to attend the last day of prayers. Now no more words, instead I let the pictures speak for themselves:

Sirajganj Weavers

I've spent a few peaceful and very long days in the Sirajganj District, next to the Jamuna Bridge, an area traditionally prone to flooding and also home to an indigenous textile industry dating back as far as the 13th century. From first observations, not much seems to have changed since then: the yarn spinning, dyeing methods and looms have a distinct pre-industrial character, working conditions are simple and nowhere near western standards, but the weavers are proud.


Supported by some local NGOs, their fabrics are of high quality and sold at a price that is well above the price of industrial manufacturing. The villages have electricity, and despite working hours of 12 or more each day, the weaving community seems content with their lot. They take great pride in their work, often passing their skills through the generations, with young boys eager to learn the craft from their fathers.

In the West, Indian and Bangladeshi fabrics are finally beginning to appear in Western fashion, and I am sure we will hear more of their crafts in due course.

I have published the story on my website about the Sirajganj Weavers, and you can also view the full set in my online archive.