Posted: 15 Sep 2011 12:01 AM PDT Over the last two weeks it has been a roller-coaster of emotions, opportunities, and exhaustion. I have been traveling for five months now and in these last two weeks it has been extremely difficult to find ANY motivation to actually pick up my camera. I have been moody, irritable, and had absolutely no drive whatsoever. I had started to burn out and it was hindering the relationships with subjects, my stories and all this negative energy was starting to show in my photographs. To say that I am happy with what I have captured so far would not be true. There is always a need for improvement where you can always push yourself to go harder, longer, and NEVER stop shooting. I am perfectionist, but as humans unfortunately we are not built like robots to function 24/7. Sometimes we need to step back, relax, have a cold beer and get just put the camera down and get away from it all.
When I thought I was going to literally beat myself with my 70-200 lens, a few friends invited me to join them for a day trip to Old Dhaka where I would give them a photography lesson. Wanting to hone my skills as a photography teacher where in the near future I plan to pursue, I quickly packed my gear and we all jumped in the car and headed down to Sadarghat. Now, I know I said earlier to put the camera down and step back, unfortunately I have found out that just doesn’t work for me…HAHAHA. Now I won’t get into any major details of the day but it was just any other day with no expectations, deadlines, or pressure. The weather was beautiful and our day consisted of checking out the Pink Palace, eating local cuisine on the street, hiring a wooden row boat where we cruised through the Buriganga river, and lots of picture taking. A GREAT day that was filled with great people, a surge of inspiration (photos coming soon), and to finish….a cold beer at the end of it.
In this blog entry you will see images from all parts of Dhaka. I will be posting TWO more blog entires over the next week sharing two stories that I have started to cover so stay posted and I hope you enjoy them. Also earlier in the blog entry I quickly mentioned opportnites so I just wanted to say a quick thank-you to Lisa who hired me to go to Sierra Leone, Africa for seven days departing September 17th, 2011 documenting a HUGE event where 10,000 pairs of crutches will be handed out to amputee victims of the civil war that took place between 1991-2002 http://www.thepeaceproject.com/. Also a HUGE THANK-YOU out to City Style & Living Magazine for the AWESOME spread in their Fall issue… Check it out Page 8, 34, 41, 42, 43 http://www.nxtbook.com/dawson/ksmedia/citystyleandliving-fall11/#/42
Thank-you to everyone who has followed me this far, for ALL your support, the beautiful words, the comments, the e-mails, and for just being awesome an genuine people.
Stay tuned over the next week as I can’t wait to share two possible stories that I hope to leave you thinking and wanting more.
Cheers and have an EPIC day!!
Jeremy
This photo was taken in the slums that are located along the rail lines throughout Dhaka. His teeth are black because some Bengali's believe it better to clean your teeth with coal rather than toothpaste.
Local boys playing a game called Carrom in the slums along the rail lines in Dhaka.
A Bengali Boy poses for me in the slums located along the rail lines in Dhaka. He lost his leg being hit by a bus 2 years ago.
A Bengali woman sifts through coal and other chemicals to birthday cake sparklers.
Riding the tops of trains. The best view in the house is free.
Riding the tops of trains. The best view in the house is free.
An older Bengali who eagerly wanted his photograph taken, but as soon as I pulled my camera to my eyes all I got was a straight and serious face. As soon as he saw the photograph he burst into laughter... I missed that shot unfortunately.