CONTACT Photography Festival 2023

Just outside the town of Patuakhali in southern Bangladesh there is a small, planned residential district where Muslims and Hindi families live side-by-side in small homes along narrow streets. Though poor and sparse, it is a model neighbourhood with everyone working hard to keep it clean and vibrant. This man stands proud in front of his beautiful home.

The neighbourhood where these women live is a small, close-knit community of lower income families who all seem to know one another well. During the day, when someone is home, front doors are left open and replaced by curtains that are more about shade than privacy. A few chairs are always kept outside as a standing invitation to stay a while. No one ever spends the day alone.

The small Azerbaijani city of Quba rests comfortably to the east of the Caucasus mountains, sitting right at their base, right where they begin to unwind and settle down to the shores of the Caspian Sea. Within the city of Quba itself, and resting just as comfortably, this man is enjoying his own moment of peace, unwinding like the mountains around him, taking every in and nothing for granted.

The rugged terrain and unique motorcycle culture of Gaziantep city have given rise to a small group of lone, rogue bikers who make their living on their bikes, collecting recyclables from garbage bins and city dumps to then sell by weight at the recycling depot.

In other cities throughout Türkiye this is usually done by foot. Men and women wheel a cart up and down the streets, collecting only one of the many types of recyclables out there. But here in Gaziantep, these men, maybe ten or fifteen of them in total, have modified their motorcycle sidecars to be able to carry every type of recyclable they can find. They ride through the city day or night, covering as much ground as they can to earn as much money as they need.

You may not see it in this photograph, but this man, and the other collectors like him, are the stars of this city. They work for themselves and answer to no one; they love their bikes and the feeling of riding free through the city streets; and they’re able make a living without having to change their way of life or give up who they are. Not one bit.

This woman and her husband live in Tbilisi, the Republic of Georgia’s capital city. They are a part of a small Russian population still living in Georgia in the post-Soviet era, and they live in the very same, tiny house where they’ve spent most of their lives together.

If you were to walk the streets of Georgia today, especially in the capital of Tbilisi, you would see a nation rebuilding itself: crumbling building are being rebuilt and restored; new boutique hotels are welcoming tourists from all over the region; and government programs are encouraging the development of a new digital economy to entice younger generations to settle here and grow the country anew.

But for the elderly, like this lovely woman and her husband, little has change in their lives over the past 30 years. Most have only a small pension to live on, and with few programs to help them, they have become this growing nation’s new class of the aging poor.

This man runs a small, automotive repair shop attached to the side of his home in the south end of the city of Gaziantep. A wood-burning stove anchors the living room while bottles of motor oil seem as perfectly placed in the cluttered space as any ornament, teacup, or propane tank.

As you might imagine, he is the kind of person who is bothered by little and is at ease just about anywhere. If you were to spend time with him, you would also discover that this does not just apply to his physical surroundings but is his general disposition in life. He is more interested in art than politics, in his neighbours than his nation, and in what he has than what he has not. – We may not know the details of his life, but he is a warm, kind soul who will always welcome you.

These two women are sitting together inside the back entrance of their 4-story walk-up apartment building, and at this moment the two of them are just a little too tired to walk up. In another 30 minutes they’ll have their legs back, but for now this is the perfect time for a visit.

On the highway into and out of the small town of Lin this man sells his fall harvest of onions, potatoes, and his home-made hot pickled peppers preserved in small plastic water bottles. He waits comfortably in the shade throughout the day, but whenever anyone approaches he promptly buttons his jacket and stands straight and proper behind his goods — the perfect gentlemen waiting to greet you.

In Old Dhaka everyone is an entrepreneur. Unless you are very well off or very poor you probably own a small shop or workspace, like this man does, and focus your business on a very singular task. Everyone works hard for their money, and most, like this man, are proud of their successes.

These young men have been put in charge of looking after the family goats. For the next few days they will feel like the family pets, but all too soon they be sacrificed to Allah in celebration of their faith.