A Girl in Bhopal, the Subject of Alex Masi’s Photograph, to Receive Grant Money – NYTimes.com
Poonam, 7, is refreshing under the late monsoon rain in the impoverished Oriya Basti Colony in Bhopal, India, near the former Union Carbide industrial complex. When the heavy monsoon rain falls every year, it seeps through the buried waste of Union Carbide before proceeding to fill up and pollute the area's underground reservoirs. By Alex Masi ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - www.alexmasi.co.uk
An updated version of ‘Open Wounds‘ is now available on VIMEO in High Definition.
More images are available here. View the Full Set on my Photoshelter Archive.
Once more:
To support the call for justice in Bhopal, visit the Bhopal Medical Appeal’s website.
The children of Bhopal can be helped by donating not just money for their care and the organisation’s long-term action, but by sending all sort of educational material like books, pens, music players, toys and more. Anything you think might help in filling a child’s life with love and fun is welcome.
Chingari Trust
44 Sant Kanwar Ram Nagar
Berasia Road
462018 Madhya Pradesh
India
Telephone: +91 755 274 7500
From inside India: 0755 274 7500
Email: Chingati Trust
Visit their website to find out more: Chingari Trust
You can contact me if you have any specific question or if you would like to reach a particular family or child.
Here is some information, links and images from the recent story I have shot in Bamyan, Afghanistan:
‘In the shade of the missing Buddhas’
The cave dwellers of Bamyan are among the poorest people in Afghanistan – their livelihoods destroyed by the same Taliban fighters who blew up the giant Buddha statues in 2001, in an attempt to obliterate the remnants of an ancient, non-Islamic civilization. Most of them are Hazaras – a minority group constituting about 15% of Afghanistan’s population. In Bamyan they constitute the vast majority of the population.
The town, located 240 km north-west of Kabul, in central Afghanistan, is their cultural capital. Little is known of their origins, but they are believed to be the descendants of Genghis Khan‘s troops which invaded the region in the early 13th century. Their features are Mongolian – flat noses, broad faces and almond-shaped eyes – and they are Shia Muslims, as opposed to the other Afghans who are for the most part Sunnis.
Life in the caves, dug by Buddhist monks some 1500 years ago, is tough and the over 200 families face numerous hardships such as collecting drinking water, finding firewood to warm up, securing employment and food, or attending school in the case of children. The cave dwellers are mostly returnees who fled the persecutions inflicted by the Taliban between 1997 and 2001, when their regime fell following a US military intervention, to find their homes torn apart.
The Buddhas of Bamyan were two 6th century monumental standing statues (55m and 37m) carved into the side of a cliff, the largest examples of standing Buddha carvings in the world. It is now a UNESCO Heritage Site since 2003.
View the FULL SET at My Photoshelter’s Archive.
TEXT AVAILABLE – Please write to Alex Masi.
The cliff where once stood the two giant Buddhas of Bamyan is photographed at night from a nearby hill by the homonymous town, in central Afghanistan.
Fatemah, 12, is walking out of the cave where she has lived with her family for the last seven years, in Bamyan, central Afghanistan.
Maryam, 38, (left) is sitting near the wood stove inside her family cave along two of her young daughters, Halemah, 9, (centre) and Hamidah, 6, (right) during the late afternoon hours when it is too cold to be spending time outside, in Bamyan, central Afghanistan.
Maryam, 38, (centre) is lighting the family’s wood stove inside their cave while, Hamidah, 6, (left) and her sister Fatemah, 12, (right) are awaiting for tea in the early hours of the morning, in Bamyan, central Afghanistan.
Fatemah, 12, is blowing in her hands to warm up in the early hours of a cold winter morning in the cave where her family have lived for the last seven years, in Bamyan, central Afghanistan.
Kobra, 17, is tearing while taking care of the fire due to the heavy smoke filling the cave where she has lived with her husband for the last seven years, in Bamyan, central Afghanistan.
Halemah, 9, is running after her family’s donkey on the way to collect water downhill. Halemah has lived in the caves with her family for the last seven years, in Bamyan, central Afghanistan.
Children are playing in front of an inhabited section of the cliff where once stood the two giant Buddhas of Bamyan, in central Afghanistan.
A woman and her son are walking along the bazaar in the centre of Bamyan, central Afghanistan, an area mostly populated by Hazaras.
Monirah, 7, (Left) and her brother Najibullah, 3, (Right) are sitting in the cave where their family have lived for the last six years, in Bamyan, central Afghanistan.
Ms Habiba Sarabi, 54, the Governor of Bamyan Province, is portrayed while sitting at her desk. In 2005, she was appointed as Governor by the Afghan President Hamid Karzai, becoming the first and only woman to ever reach such position in the country.
Villages are photographed from the air while travelling over the Hindu Kush between Kabul and Bamyan, in central Afghanistan.
The series ‘Open Wounds’: Bhopal 1984-2009 wins a Special Prize by Jury at the Days Japan International Photojournalist Awards 2010.
Open Wounds: Bhopal 1984-2009 - by Alex Masi - www.alexmasi.co.uk - All Rights Reserved
The image below, shot in Bhopal, MP, India, for which my series can be seen Here, has won the 2nd place – Feature Picture of the Year category at The Photographers Giving Back Awards 2010.
A lone girl is refreshing under the late monsoon rain in the impoverished Oriya Basti Colony in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, near the former Union Carbide industrial complex. When the heavy monsoon rain falls every year, it seeps through the buried waste of Union Carbide before proceeding to fill up and pollute Bhopal's underground reservoirs.
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