I've been in Dhaka for about 48 hours and I've taken exactly two pictures of the city, way fewer than I took in either Taipei or Shanghai. This is partly because I've been taking it easy and haven't explored the city much, but it's also because I'm having an internal conflict about when it's appropriate to take pictures.
I feel a bit uncomfortable here. Of the places I've visited, it's where I most feel my privilege. The things I've seen so far that I'll remember most (and thus want to take pictures of) are the crowds of rickshaws, the unbelievably packed buses with horribly cracked windshields, the poorly roofed lean-tos that sell food but also might be where people sleep, and the abundance of beggars missing at least one limb (explanation for this is a few paragraphs down).
Raafi told me that the last of these is because some of the people here cant conceive of a life for the children beyond begging and so they remove a limb from some of their children in order to garner additional sympathy, and thus receive additional money.
These images are central to what makes Dhaka different from the other cities I am visiting and so I want to share pictures with you. But is it appropriate for me to take pictures of these scenes? I'm not a journalist trying to raise awareness about life here. I can't articulate what feels "wrong" about taking these photos. Maybe it's just that by taking pictures, I turn these peoples' lives into tourist attractions. The irony is that by making a big deal out of it, I'm doing the same thing. I'm making the poverty here into a story about me.
Generally, I don't have a framework for thinking about these issues. I'll ask Raafi look at this before I post it so that I don't completely stick my foot in my mouth. (Note: he did and said this isn't TOO absurd and/or navel-gaze-y.)
I will, however, have some photos to share when I go to the tourist-y sites. Old Dhaka has a number of very old buildings that I'm excited to go see tomorrow (yay history!).
Separately, but also about photos, I have a story from Shanghai. At the history museum in the Shanghai TV Tower, some girls came up to my holding a camera and started speaking in Chinese. The only words I heard were "可以" or "can," as in "can you take a picture of us." I said yes, and proceeded to be the subject of a series of photos with these girls...