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Building awareness

6 December 2005, 18:00 PM
LIFESTYLE
By Kavita Charanji
6 December 2005, 18:00 PM
One of the photographs on display Courtesy: Bristi Chowdhury/ VSO 2005
Bangladeshis respond more to visual stimuli than the written or spoken word," says the young Bristi Chowdhury, a talented freelance photographer. Bristi's eye catching 58 black and white photographs, on display at Shilpangan Gallery, certainly speak for themselves. The exhibition, titled Our Hopes Our Fears Our Reality, organised by Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), Bangladesh, aims to give a human angle to the scourge of HIV and AIDS, through the stories of ordinary people young or old, men or women and cutting across classes. Bristi adds a caveat: " These are just normal people, from the general population. We are not implying that they are HIV positive or sex workers."

One enters the photography exhibition to see the caption 'Who is vulnerable?' Here are the faces of women happy, pensive, hopeful and sad and at the end of this section is a mirror in which one can see oneself. The implication? We are all vulnerable to HIV and AIDS and there is no room for complacency. As Bristi says, " Nobody lives in a vacuum. We are not directly talking about HIV but this is a spin off of the works on display."

Other photographs are of a young street child in a cart, men reading and discussing literature on sexual health, HIV and AIDS and a young and old woman applying make up.

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Among the hard-hitting captions are: "My family tried to poison me because I am HIV positive," "I thought that I was alone. I felt that my other friends are not like me," and "My wife is far away, so I visit sex workers." Bristi travelled to a number of VSO's HIV & AIDS Programme partners, such as YPSA, Aparajeyo and Ashar Alo Society, drawing on case studies to relate the lives of those most vulnerable to HIV.

Putting the HIV and AIDS issue in perspective is Danielle Fleur Alford, Programme Manager HIV& AIDS, VSO Bangladesh. Explaining the modus operandi of the organisation, she says, "We had to identify people who were willing to be photographed. We also gave an example of peer education on sexual health issues. Though the overall prevalence of HIV is quite low, it is increasing in high-risk groups. Once it spreads in the high-risk group they in turn interact with other people. And it becomes a generalised epidemic. We are confronted with the situation of a lack of knowledge and testing facilities, plus the stigma attached to the deadly disease. Exhibitions like this can go a long way in generating awareness and clearing misconceptions about HIV and AIDS."

This is Bristi's second solo exhibition. With a German mother and Bangladeshi father, she has been in the country for five years. The initial response from the public has been favourable. As she points out, on at the opening of the exhibition on December 1, the organisers invited people from the street to see the photographs. Though they didn't know about the issue, they were interested in learning about it and how they could protect themselves from getting it and passing it on to others in the family.

Meanwhile, Bristi finds Bangladesh creatively stimulating in terms of subjects. She particularly enjoys doing portraits." I enjoy the openness of the people. People on the street love having photographs taken. In UK, where I was previously, photographs are regarded more as an intrusion. Here there is no picture without the permission of the subject."

Those interested in getting a glimpse of these photographs would do well to head for Shilpangan. The exhibition is on till December 14.