Two young women on their way to work in Comilla Photo Credit: Geoffrey Hiller
My Fulbright experience was completely unexpected. There is a saying in Bangladesh that when expats or diplomats are sent to Dhaka they cry twice. First, when they are assigned to their post and later when they have to leave.
Bangladesh is such a welcoming place for a photographer (or any visitor for that matter). Since the country was predominantly Muslim I was at first cautious about what it would be like photographing in public. As is often the case, the opposite of what I expected was true. Bangladeshis in general are extremely extroverted and now that digital technology is becoming more widely available, people on the streets were snapping almost as many photos of me with their cell phones as I was of them.
Documentary photography in part is about gaining access, and in Bangladesh this was often less of an obstacle then in other countries. I was invited into private homes and to madrasas (which serve as orphanages and schools). On the other hand, the day-to-day condition of living in a mega-city with over 15 million people presented other challenges. During the "hot and dry" season when the electricity grid was overtaxed, Dhaka went without power (called 'loadshedding') for six hours a day.
This was a problem when I needed the lights to work when I taught, not to mention internet access or general electricity. Teaching Interactive Media at the Independent University of Bangladesh also turned out different then I imagined. The campus pictured on their website didn't exactly exist yet and was still literally under construction.
In general, the students' enthusiasm more then made up for the technical challenges (dial-up modem-like internet speeds). I ended up concentrating on having my students blog. After being back for less then four months in the States it's heartening to see that many of them have used their new-found skill set in their new jobs and internships. (I've included a link to the blog
I maintained in Bangladesh with links to some of my students' work.) The amazing thing is that all forms of journalism including print are still in growth mode in Bangladesh, compared to the U.S.
View a slideshow of a selection of Geoffrey's photos from Bangladesh and view a video of Geoffrey while out in Old Dhaka taking photos. Salman Saeed, one of Geoffrey's students in interactive media at the Independent University, Bangladesh, shot the video.
Geoffrey Hiller's photography has been published in the United States, Europe, and Japan in such publications as Geo, Newsweek, Mother Jones, and The New York Times Magazine. His photo-essays have covered Asia, Latin America, Europe, and West Africa. He was on the staff of the Brazilian edition of National Geographic for two years. Hiller's award-winning multimedia projects about Vietnam, eastern Europe, Ghana, Burma, and Brazil have earned recognition from Adobe, the Soros Foundation, Apple, The Christian Science Monitor, and USA Today. He has also developed web projects for Tektronix, Xerox, Canon, and the National Press Photographers Association. Hiller was a Fulbright Scholar between 2008 and 2009, photographing and teaching interactive media in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He maintains two blogs: www.banglaphoto.wordpress.com
, about his work in Bangladesh, and www.vervephoto.wordpress.com, where he edits the work of contemporary documentary photographers.
To the U.S.-Bangladesh Fulbright Program