Bangladesh

BANGLADESH – The Shipbreakers and so much more

A young girl working in the brick kilns (image by Inger Vandyke)

Commuters crossing the Buriganga (image by Inger Vandyke)

Portrait of a ship breaking worker (image by Inger Vandyke)

Sweeping rice to dry in the sun (image by Inger Vandyke)

The brick workers of Bangladesh toil in the dust and heat (image by Yousuf Tushar)

A young boy carrying bricks. Child labour is an issue in Bangladesh and although children carry lighter loads, they still work very hard! (image by Inger Vandyke)

Brick carrying in Dhaka (image by Inger Vandyke)

A young girl spreading fabric out to dry (image by Inger Vandyke)

A woman's work is never done! Drying washing by the river (image by Inger Vandyke)

A young girl holds a fishing net in a sea of fish baskets (image by Inger Vandyke)

The supervisor of a brick working yard (image by Inger Vandyke)

Portrait of a ship breaker (image by Inger Vandyke)

A young boy inside a rice drying topa (image by Inger Vandyke)

Portrait of a brick carrying woman and her baby. The pink pain was given by the supervisor to the workers to help them celebrate making their quota (image by Inger Vandyke)

Vegetable sellers (image by Inger Vandyke)

A waste picking woman covers herself with a shawl to stay warm at sunrise (image by Inger Vandyke)

Coal carriers in Dhaka (image by Inger Vandyke)

Many canoes are used to mine stones from the river (image by Inger Vandyke)

Our tour will take place in the peak of the chilli season, giving us a chance to photograph women sorting chillis by hand (image by Yousuf Tushar)

Four-boat fishing in the river (image by Inger Vandyke)

Brick working women (image by Inger Vandyke)

People collecting rubbish for resale in Bangladesh. Currently waste generation in Bangladesh is around 22.4 million tons per year and almost all of the sorting is done by hand (image by Yousuf Tushar)

The commute taxi boats with their life rings (image by Inger Vandyke)

Men prepare the nets to load onto a traditional Moonboat (image by Inger Vandyke)

Portrait of an old fisherman standing in the anchorage bamboos of the beach at Chittagong (image by Inger Vandyke)

An elderly woman takes a break after cleaning the floor of a yoghurt factory (image by Inger Vandyke)

Each day thousands of workers carry loads of coal, sand and rocks from boats to the shore in Bangladesh (image by Inger Vandyke)

Lines of women working to sort chillies at a large plant (image by Inger Vandyke)

Brick workers toiling in tremendous amounts of dust (image by Inger Vandyke)

A young boy in the fish drying area of Bangladesh (image by Inger Vandyke)

Rice workers in remote Bangladesh (image by Inger Vandyke)

A line of workers chipping rust off the hull of a ship (image by Inger Vandyke)

Commuters in a cycle rickshaw in Dhaka (image by Inger Vandyke)

Pouring molten metal to create a new ship propeller (image by Inger Vandyke)

Portrait of a Jute worker (image by Inger Vandyke)

Young men toil over steaming, cooking yoghurt (image by Inger Vandyke)

Young man working with dried fish in Bangladesh (image by Inger Vandyke)

The heat and dust of a brick pit lying adjacent to a large brick kiln (image by Inger Vandyke)

River boats moored on the shoreline of the might Yamouna River (image by Inger Vandyke)

A woman holds the tools vital to her work - basket of chillies in one hand, her cell phone in the other (image by Inger Vandyke)

Dust explodes in the streets of Dhaka as the city prepares for the annual onslaught of mosquitoes in the monsoon (image by Inger Vandyke)

Young boys hauling Moonboat nets at sunset (image by Inger Vandyke)

Aerial view of Dhaka, one of the most over-populated cities on earth (image by Inger Vandyke)

The mesmerisingly pretty Bangladeshi Moonboats (image by Inger Vandyke)

A young boy of the ship breaking yards (image by Inger Vandyke)

The mesmerising sunsets at Cox's Bazaar, where Moonboat fishermen prepare to go to sea (image by Inger Vandyke)

The crazy lines of power poles adorning a riverside street in Dhaka (image by Inger Vandyke)

A welder fixes the superstructure of a large ship, unable to see who might be outside. Ship breaking is one of the most hazardous industries in the world (image by Inger Vandyke)

Sailing through another planet (image by Inger Vandyke)

A stone worker tosses a rock into a nearby truck (image by Inger Vandyke)

Dolu, Kushi and Khali - three pet otters trained to herd fish into the nets of Bangladesh's Otter fishermen (image by Inger Vandyke)

Breaking ships in Bangladesh (image by Inger Vandyke)

A ship worker takes a break in the freshly cut window of steel at the shipbreaker's yard (image by Yousuf Tushar)

The patriarch of a waste picking family taking a cigarette break (image by Inger Vandyke)

Waste picking is one of the most confronting human labours in Bangladesh (image by Inger Vandyke)

River taxis moored up like flowers (image by Inger Vandyke)

A herd of domestic buffaloes swim in a lake (image by Inger Vandyke)

A young girl in the fabric dying area (image by Inger Vandyke)

Mending nets on the beach (image by Inger Vandyke)

Acres of drying fabric (image by Inger Vandyke)

Four-boat fishing aerial (image by Inger Vandyke)

The hard labour of Bangladesh's brick making factories (image by Yousuf Tushar)

A young boy jumps a pool on the world's longest sea beach at sunrise in southern Bangladesh (image by Yousuf Tushar)

Portrait of a young boy on the older Inter City carriages of Kamalapur Railway Station in Dhaka (image by Inger Vandyke)

Beautifully decorated Moon boats on Cox's Bazaar (image by Inger Vandyke)

Portrait of a young boy in the drying fish (image by Inger Vandyke)

A young boy takes a break from ship breaking (image by Inger Vandyke)

Chickens for sale en-masse at the largest poultry market in Dhaka (image by Inger Vandyke)

A family of Otter fishermen continue their unique way of life that has been patriarchally handed down through generations (image by Inger Vandyke)

Carrying is still a regular job for the people of Bangladesh (image by Inger Vandyke)

A cloth worker ensures his reams of red fabric are laid flat to dry in the sun (image by Ahmed Sikder)

A cloth worker ensures his reams of red fabric are laid flat to dry in the sun in the largest tie dyeing factory in Bangladesh (image by Ahmed Sikder)

Making a new propeller out of metal that is recycled from broken ships (image by Inger Vandyke)

Aerial view of workers outside a brick kiln (image by Inger Vandyke)

A young boy rides his red bicycle through lines of drying bricks (image by Inger Vandyke)

The Flowers of the Buriganga. Commute boats moor up in the shape of lotus flowers in the Buriganga river which runs through the heart of Dhaka (image by Inger Vandyke)

Instead of modern toys, the children of Bangladesh's fish dryers make fun in the lines of fish (image by Yousuf Tushar)

Ship workers taking a break from painting a hull (image by Inger Vandyke)

Dusting for mosquitoes ahead of the monsoon in Dhaka (image by Inger Vandyke)

Adult men are tasked with carrying loads of 12 bricks to the kiln! (image by Inger Vandyke)

Ship worker inside a small foundry (image by Inger Vandyke)

Thousands coal workers carry loads of coal on their heads from ship to shore in Bangladesh (image by Yousuf Tushar)

Women sort through newly arrived rubbish, looking for recycling materials (image by Inger Vandyke)

Young men mending nets in front of a fleet of Moonboats (image by Inger Vandyke)

The frenetic streets of Dhaka are filled with people and rickshaw traffic (image by Yousuf Tushar)

The frenetic streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital, are filled with people and rickshaw traffic (image by Yousuf Tushar)

Children of the rice harvest (image by Inger Vandyke)

Sand miner carrying loads to the riverbank (image by Inger Vandyke)

An elder of Bangladesh's chilli farming community (image by Inger Vandyke)

The bustling Kamalapur Train Station of Dhaka (image by Inger Vandyke)

Portrait of an old man inside a rice shop (image by Inger Vandyke)

Traditional stores selling motor parts in Dhaka (image by Inger Vandyke)

Going home after working in the rice drying area (image by Inger Vandyke)

Plastic goods for sale by bike in Bangladesh (image by Inger Vandyke)

A rice husker delivering his produce to a storage pile (image by Inger Vandyke)

A woman lies her clothes out to dry on top of rice drying topas (image by Inger Vandyke)

A vegetable seller sorting cabbages (image by Inger Vandyke)

Chicken traders in Bangladesh's largest poultry market (image by Yousuf Tushar)

A young girl leaps into the air under fish drying racks (image by Inger Vandyke)

Portrait of a rope carrier on Cox's Bazaar (image by Inger Vandyke)

Young girl running with a newly dyed piece of fabric before she lays it out to dry in the sun (image by Inger Vandyke)

An elderly man walks through his verdant field of rice (image by Inger Vandyke)

A traditional yoghurt maker filling his clay pots (image by Yousuf Tushar)

Betel nuts are the staple recreational drug of choice in Bangladesh (image by Inger Vandyke)

A young girl carries her baby sister through a rice drying courtyard (image by Inger Vandyke)

Portrait of a beautiful young muslim woman in Dhaka (image by Inger Vandyke)

A young son of a brick worker looks at me through the washing (image by Inger Vandyke)

Still made with twisting hardwoods by hand, a Moon boat sits under construction in the she-oaks adjacent to the beach where she will eventually be launched (image by Inger Vandyke)

A line of pretty Moonboats sit waiting for action at the high tide mark (image by Inger Vandyke)

A beautifully colourful courtyard of women at a pottery making region (image by Inger Vandyke)

An aerial view of the rice workers in Bangladesh. Our tour will feature numerous opportunities to explore Bangladesh by drone (image by Ahmed Sikder)

Every day thousands of people head to work in the famous ship breaker yards of Bangladesh (image by Yousuf Tushar)

Workers in a rice drying courtyard (image by Inger Vandyke)

An elderly lady shows off her sorted chillies (image by Inger Vandyke)

Traditional wooden fishing boats that ply the Bay of Bengal (image by Inger Vandyke)

The chicken seller (image by Inger Vandyke)

Carrying large bundles of clothes in the fabric district (image by Inger Vandyke)

Portrait of a brick worker in the dust of a large brick factory in Dhaka (image by Inger Vandyke)

Portrait of a cycle rickshaw driver in Dhaka (image by Inger Vandyke)

The beautifully coloured pans of a salt works (image by Inger Vandyke)

One of Bangladesh's beautiful chilli sorting courtyards (image by Inger Vandyke)

Children working to lay out freshly dyed fabric to dry in the sun (image by Inger Vandyke)

Beautiful bride and sister of the bride at a Hindu wedding (image by Inger Vandyke)

One of the women workers of a fish drying area (image by Inger Vandyke)

Waste pickers in Bangladesh (image by Inger Vandyke)

A group of fishermen deliver trailers full of repaired nets to boats moored off the beach at Chittagong (image by Inger Vandyke)

Landing a Moon boat on the beach (image by Inger Vandyke)

Warm smile of a woman working as a waste picker (image by Inger Vandyke)

Cycle Rickshaw rush hour (image by Inger Vandyke)

Women preparing dinner alongside a chicken with her babies and drying washing on rice topas (image by Inger Vandyke)

A buffalo enjoys a lakeside grazing session while a Cattle Egret sits on his back, waiting for the spoils (image by Inger Vandyke)

An elderly man who drives one of the river taxi boats in Dhaka (image by Inger Vandyke)

An elderly woman working as a waste picker (image by Inger Vandyke)

Portrait of a brick carrier (image by Inger Vandyke)

Brick carrying is one of the most difficult jobs you can do in Bangladesh (image by Inger Vandyke)

A circle of children in a rice drying courtyard (image by Inger Vandyke)

A bus speeds past a homeless cycle rickshaw driver lying asleep on a bed propped up by bricks (image by Inger Vandyke)

Chilli workers (image by Inger Vandyke)

Stunning Moon boats at sunset on Cox's Bazaar (image by Inger Vandyke)

A stone miner takes a break (image by Inger Vandyke)

A sand carrier offloads at a quarry (image by Inger Vandyke)

A heart of fishermen bringing in the nets of a moonboat (image by Inger Vandyke)

Offloading fish in baskets (image by Inger Vandyke)

Brick making is a gigantic industry in Bangladesh (image by Inger Vandyke)

Portrait of stone miners (image by Yousuf Tushar)

Men carrying bricks out of a brick pit (image by Inger Vandyke)

Sorting the chilli harvest (image by Inger Vandyke)

Beautiful wooden river boats carrying vegetables to the market (image by Inger Vandyke)

Every day, lines of people work to carry coal to and from ships (image by Yousuf Tushar)

Every day, lines of people work to carry coal to and from ships . They join millions in Bangladesh who work by hand in heavy industries (image by Yousuf Tushar)

Portrait of a brick carrier (image by Inger Vandyke)

A river taxi captain waiting for his next ride (image by Inger Vandyke)

Beautiful sunset in rural Bangladesh (image by Inger Vandyke)

Portrait of a fisherman's daughter in Bangladesh (image by Inger Vandyke)

Men work in unison to land a Moonboat (image by Inger Vandyke)

A fabric dying worker proudly shows off his work (image by Inger Vandyke)

A ring of children hold hands in a circle at a rice drying courtyard (image by Inger Vandyke)

Traders selling vegetables from a beautiful floating market (image by Inger Vandyke)

Dotala houses are unique to Bangladesh. During monsoon these pretty houses can be packed up and moved to escape flooding (image by Inger Vandyke)

Bringing in the catch of a Moon boat involves groups of men hauling heavy nets in by hand (image by Inger Vandyke)

Sand mining boat on a green river (image by Inger Vandyke)

Men work to cover rows of drying bricks as a rain shower threatens (image by Inger Vandyke)

Waste picking women in remote Bangladesh (image by Inger Vandyke)

A colourful shop selling locally produced dyed cloths (image by Inger Vandyke)

Moonboats glowing in the blush of dusk (image by Inger Vandyke)

Beautiful Bengali women sorting through red chillis at the height of the harvest (image by Ahmed Sikder)

Beautiful Bengali women sorting through red chillis at the height of the harvest in Bangladesh (image by Ahmed Sikder)

Small shop inside the mechanic's district (image by Inger Vandyke)

Salt workers (image by Inger Vandyke)

Fishermen dragging a Moon boat from the sea at bay of Bengal (image by Yousuf Tushar)

Brick runners in Dhaka (image by Inger Vandyke)

An elder of a Bangladeshi fishing community (image by Inger Vandyke)

Portrait of a hawker selling cockerels around the old quarter of Dhaka (image by Yousuf Tushar)

Portrait of a hawker selling cockerels around the old quarter of Dhaka in Bangladesh (image by Yousuf Tushar)

Waste pickers work alongside mechanical diggers and thousands of birds (image by Inger Vandyke)

Heading out to sea in one of Bangladesh's charismatic Moon boats (image by Inger Vandyke)

Ship workers in Dhaka (image by Inger Vandyke)

Otter fishing (image by Inger Vandyke)

A young man working in the metal recycling part of Bangladesh's ship breaking yards (image by Inger Vandyke)

The chilli harvest supervisor (image by Inger Vandyke)

Rings of fish for sale in Cox's Bazaar (image by Inger Vandyke)

Fishermen line up to greet a new day on the world's longest sea beach (image by Yousuf Tushar)

A woman works to pick waste in Bangladesh (image by Inger Vandyke)

A fleet of beautiful Moonboats (image by Inger Vandyke)

Women sweeping rice into lines in a huge courtyard (image by Yousuf Tushar)

Saturday 1st March – Friday 14th March 2025

Leader: Yousuf Tushar

14 Days

Group Size Limit 7

BANGLADESH: CULTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY TOURS WITH WILD IMAGES

Bangladesh, the emerald of South Asia, is one of the world’s most intriguing and beautiful countries. It is a world of friendly people, rich cultures, vibrant festivals, ancient traditions, bustling streets and industries that are toiled by hand in the same way they have been for centuries

Wild Images recently returned from its inaugural photo tour to this incredible destination, where we were quickly overwhelmed by the friendliness of Bangladeshi people who live in one of the most photogenic countries in South Asia.

Imagine a world of colourful women sitting in the middle of a million chillies, sorting them by hand. A world where local fishermen head to sea in moon shaped boats or catch fish using ‘pet’ otters. A world where children play in between gargantuan lines of tie dyed cloth, huge rice drying courtyards and among thousands of drying fish.

This is Bangladesh, one of the world’s most fascinating street and people photography destinations.

While the rest of the world has mechanized and industrialised a lot of its traditional agriculture and basic work, the remarkable thing about Bangladesh is that everything imaginable is done entirely by hand. This includes carrying, sorting, recycling, mining, farming and fabric dying. Much of our tour will be focussed on photographing these rapidly-changing industries, in between street and drone photography sessions.

Led by one of the leading photography guides in the country, Yousuf Tushar, whose work is internationally acclaimed, you will learn from him in some of Bangladesh’s most fascinating locations including the famous ship breakers, brick makers, otter fishermen, stone miners and chilli harvesters in this must see destination. This is a tour suited to all photographers and drone pilots, from beginners to professionals, who truly want to capture the soul and beauty of Bangladesh through a series of spontaneous and laid back situations combined with carefully curated, private photo shoots.

The Ship Breakers

The ship yards of Bangladesh are where ships go to die. Each day over 200,000 people head to these famous ship yards to work breaking ships down, salvaging metal and disposing of what cannot be recycled. It is a frenetic place of welding, cutting and carrying by hand.

Bangladesh is the largest centre for breaking ships in the world. Around a decade ago, the country was responsible for breaking down over 150 large freight ships and recycling their components by hand. With the ever growing increase in shipping trade, this number has now increased exponentially and now it supplies over half of the country’s demand for steel.

We will seek out people dismantling some of the world’s largest ships and photograph them from permitted positions of safety, as they go about their daily work in this labyrinth of ship skeletons.

Dhaka

During our excursions in Dhaka we will experience street life in the city’s oldest quarter doing street photography. This incredible corner of Dhaka is a beating heart of the city, filled with colourful cycle rickshaws, street vendors, markets and some of Dhaka’s most iconic colonial buildings. It is the sort of place you could return to again and again and come away with completely different images. During our time in Bangladesh’s capital we will also spend a morning at the Old Dhaka riverside, where thousands of people cross the river each day in over 3000 small traditional boats. Many of these boats are beautifully handcrafted out of timber and the local people tend to moor them up in flower-like formations, turning them into incredible photography subjects. Of course, the friendly Bangladeshi people will be a huge feature of our walks through some of Dhaka’s most photogenic quarters.

During our time in Dhaka we will enjoy a photo shoot at one of the city’s most busy train stations. We will wander the platforms taking portraits in train windows and photographing people on their daily commute.

On our final day of the tour we will visit the country’s largest chicken market for photography. Here, thousands of chickens are sold each day from cone-shaped, hand made nets. We will photograph the chicken sellers within the market and also those who walk the alleyways carrying baskets of chickens on their heads as they go about their daily trade.

A Life of Colour

We will visit the largest fabric dying centre in all of Bangladesh, a place where workers dye fabrics by hand and spread them on the ground or on racks to dry in the baking sun. This riot of colour changes every day and we will spend some time creating images of the workers of the cloth while exploring lines and composition in photography.

Our tour is timed to coincide with the peak season for harvesting many different products including chillis, rice and other produce. We will visit some extraordinary centres where brightly clothed women sort through millions of red chillies and where rice workers ensure that their produce is lined out to dry each day.

Waste Pickers, Stone Miners and Brick Makers

Perhaps some of the most confronting work sites we will visit in Bangladesh will be traditional stone and coal mines. In these sites over 20,000 people work each day to winnow, sort, wash, carry and load rocks and coal in an industry that dates back hundreds of years.

In a similar fashion, Bangladesh also has large plants for manufacturing bricks by hand. Unlike elsewhere in the world where brick manufacturing is mechanised, in Bangladesh people form bricks by hand, dry them in the sun and then kiln fire them before taking them to storage areas to be sold. During our visit to a brick making plant we will be able to photograph workers carrying brick sand on their heads and toiling in the dust.

Finally we will visit a large garbage dump where groups of waste-picking work daily to sort through the newly arrived rubbish, trying to find items to recycle.

A Rich Tradition of Fishing

Bangladesh is where the largest river in Asia, the Ganges, pulses life through a myriad of tributaries braiding the country with finger-like waterways. These waters eventually end up in the Bay of Bengal where fishermen take to the sea in vibrant moon boats to fish near one of the world’s longest sea beaches. It is here we will stay until sunset to watch fishermen dragging their boats ashore, mending nets, untangling their catch and then drying fish on huge racks, before it is sold.

In the tributaries we will spend a morning with the world’s only Otter fishermen, who ply the waters with their habituated otters that they have trained to catch fish for them in the rivers. This fascinating tradition dates back to the 6th century and is handed down through generations. There are only around 300 otter fishermen left in Bangladesh, yet around 2000 people depend on otter fishing for their livelihoods. As younger people opt to get an education rather than fish, the numbers of fishermen utilising otters to catch fish is dwindling rapidly so our tour is a unique chance to photograph this unique relationship between man and otter before it disappears forever.

Food For Life

The process of feeding one of Asia’s most populated countries is fascinating and during our tour we will visit traditional makers of yoghurt and a number of markets selling poultry and vegetables. Home to thousands of small sellers who trade in everything, Bangladesh’s markets are a riot of colour and activity.

We will visit a large floating market for vegetables and street markets that trade in other foods and wares.

During our time exploring the various food production areas of Bangladesh, we will meet with groups of people who keep large herds of buffalos and flocks of ducks. Combining photography on foot and with drones, we will spend time with these amazing farmers as they care for their animals, bathing them and feeding them.

An Aerial and Eye Level Odyssey

For the first time Wild Images is offering a photography tour where there will be several spectacular possibilities for drone photography.

Street and drone flyers are welcome here and we will work closely alongside you to create a portfolio of aerial and street images that encapsulate the beauty of our photographic locations. Without a drone your ability to capture ‘aerial’ type images is still possible as we find vantage points from bridges and buildings to gain unique ‘birds eye view’ perspectives on our shooting locations.

Join us on this immersive, imaginary photo tour through one of South Asia’s most mesmerising countries.

Why visit Bangladesh with Wild Images

There are already a few companies offering tours in Bangladesh. Most of these tend to be straight street photography trips where guests take their chances at the scenes they are presented with. Photography in places like Bangladesh is a challenge we’ve overcome by working with an unrivalled level of expertise on the ground.

Our itinerary has been timed to run in the peak season of harvest for red chillies and other produce. We have also timed our morning and afternoon shoots to ensure you are in the best locations for photography each day.

We have carefully crafted our itinerary to offer a truly unique, insider perspective of some of Asia’s most industrious work places. Through a series of private, curated shoots you will capture an intimate portfolio of images that encapsulates the life and colour of Bangladesh like few others can.

Combine this with spontaneous street shoots, portrait and drone photography opportunities and we hope to take you on a fascinating, once in a lifetime, journey to Bangladesh.

Accommodation & Road Transport

The hotels/lodges used during our Bangladesh photography tour are almost all good tourist standard. Road transport is by small coach or minibus on mostly good quality bitumen and dirt roads.

Walking

The walking effort during our Bangladesh photography tour is mostly easy.

Climate

Daytime temperatures in Bangladesh will be hot, humid and sunny.

Photographic Equipment

This tour is largely centred around street photography and is best suited to smaller lenses including smaller primes, zooms, wide angle lenses, bridge cameras and even phones.

During our attendance at large gatherings of people and also when we visit some communities, you may wish to have a larger zoom similar to a 100-400 or 200-600 with you.

Drones are welcome on this tour.

If you have other questions about what equipment you ought to bring, please contact us.

Photographic Highlights

Create a stunning portfolio of images through spontaneous street photography and carefully curated private shoots
A visually spectacular photographic odyssey combining portraits, street and drone photography
Visit Bangladesh's world-famous ship breakers
Explore the spectacular colours of Bangladesh’s annual chilli and rice harvests
Experience life with the Otter fishermen in the wilderness of the Sundarbans
Photograph thousands of people crossing the river at the Old Dhaka riverfront
Enjoy the colours of the country’s largest fabric dying factory
Sunset photography of the beautiful moon fishing boats on one of the world’s longest beaches
Explore Bangladesh’s largest stone mine and brick making factories
Experience fishing on rivers and at sea, including fish drying, net mending and fish markets
Dawn photography at a large garbage area where people work amongst the smoke and birds to collect rubbish for recycling
Wander the platforms of a vibrant Bangladeshi train station photographing people and street scenes
Visit bustling street and floating markets where traders ply their wares of vegetables, livestock and other goods
Visit traditional yoghurt and pottery makers in rural Bangladesh

OUTLINE ITINERARY

Day 1: Arrive in Dhaka, street photography in the old quarter before a welcome dinner
Day 2: Drive to the Old Dhaka riverside for photographing people crossing the river and first photography session with the ship breakers
Day 3: After breakfast visit the fabric dying area and then the rest of the day photographing rice workers and rice courtyards
Day 4: Early shoot at the floating vegetable market before we visit some gigantic sand and stone mines
Day 5: Sunrise photography at a large garbage field where we will explore men, women & children collecting junk to recycle. Returning to Dhaka, if time allows we will make a second visit to the rice courtyards.
Day 6: Morning photography at the brick makers then drive to Chattogram
Day 7: Explore the largest fish market in Chattogram before driving to the longest sea beach to photograph local fish drying factories and a trawler beach at Cox's Bazaar
Day 8: A full day exploring the stunning Moon Boats and their associated industries of fishing, fish drying and salt mining, until sunset
Day 9: Early morning visit to the fish drying area where over 5000 families work every day to dry fish. Afternoon flight to Dhaka and, if time allows, some more street photography in the Old Quarter
Day 10: Morning visit to a pottery village to photograph traditional potter working by hand to make clay pots, followed by street photography in villages dotted with beautiful Dotala houses
Day 11: Pre-dawn start to meet families of traditional otter fishermen and photograph them fishing, before returning to Dhaka where will spend an afternoon at the central railway station taking street photos
Day 12: Drive to the outskirts of Dhaka to visit a coal port where labourers carry coal off ships by hand, then an afternoon of photography at a yoghurt production facility in northern Bangladesh
Day 13: Early morning visit to spectacular chilli harvest area and rice fields, before visiting a river to photograph fishermen and men working at a local jute factory.
Day 14: Dawn visit to Dhaka’s lively poultry chicken market before breakfast. This morning you can enjoy a rest or we can head to one of Dhaka's markets for some final souvenir shopping before our final lunch and transfer to the international airport where our tour will end.

To see a larger map, click on the square-like ‘enlarge’ icon in the upper right of the map box.

To see (or hide) the ‘map legend’, click on the icon with an arrow in the upper left of the map box.

To change to a satellite view, which is great for seeing the physical terrain (and for seeing really fine details by repetitive use of the + button), click on the square ‘map view’ icon in the lower left corner of the ‘map legend’.

PRICE INFORMATION

Wild Images Inclusions: Our tour prices include surface transportation, one internal flight, accommodations, all village donations and photography fees, meals and entrance fees.

Our tour prices also include all tips for our driver/photography guide and accommodation/restaurant staff.

Deposit: 20% of the total tour price. Our office will let you know what deposit amount is due, in order to confirm your booking, following receipt of your online booking form.

TO BOOK THIS TOUR: Click here (you will need the tour dates)

2025: provisional $6390, £4950, €5810, AUD9640. Dhaka/Dhaka

Single Supplement: 2025: $590, £450, €530, AUD890.

If you are travelling alone, the single supplement will not apply if you are willing to share a room and there is a room-mate of the same sex available.

This tour is priced in US Dollars. Amounts shown in other currencies are indicative.

Air Travel To & From The Tour: Our in-house IATA ticket agency will be pleased to arrange your air travel on request, or you may arrange this yourself if you prefer.

BANGLADESH: THE SHIP BREAKERS AND MORE PHOTOGRAPHY TOUR: DETAILED ITINERARY

Bangladesh: Cultural Photography Tour Day 1

Our tour begins with a morning arrival in Dhaka. After settling in to our hotel and enjoying lunch, we will take our first visit to one of Dhaka’s oldest quarters where we will enjoy street photography of people, cycle rickshaws and shops. This will be followed by our welcome dinner to the tour.

Bangladesh: Cultural Photography Tour Day 2

An early morning start at the old Dhaka riverside which sees thousands of people crossing the river in traditional boats every day. These beautiful wooden boats can sometimes be moored up to look like a flower so we will spend time here photographing life on the river as it unfolds. After lunch nearby we will spend the rest of the day exploring the incredible ship breakers of Bangladesh on foot. Over 200,000 people live and work in this area, which is the largest ship yard in Asia. We will visit a number of workshops where people are melting metal and explore the labyrinth of ship skeletons photographing people as they work to dismantle ships and create new ones from the recovered metal and parts.

Bangladesh: Cultural Photography Tour Day 3

At sunrise today we will leave for the north eastern part of Bangladesh. On our journey north we will stop at the country’s largest fabric dying factory where we will see huge reams of fabric being dyed by hand and laid out in the sun to dry.

Our afternoon shoot will be at large courtyards used by people for drying rice, where will be exploring the colours, lines and beauty of this rapidly-disappearing traditional practice.

Bangladesh: Cultural Photography Tour Day 4

Today we will enjoy an early morning photo visit to a beautiful floating vegetable market to photograph the myriad of traders plying a river by boat and paddle to sell their produce. We will then visit two large riverside mines – one involving sand mining and the other involved in rock mining. Wandering around the river banks we will photograph workers carrying sand and stones in baskets. Nearby we will also explore a large stone polishing mill with its many workers.

Bangladesh: Cultural Photography Tour Day 5

This morning we will head to a large garbage dump for sunrise photography of men, women & children collecting junk to recycle. Waste picking employs around 4,000 people in Bangladesh and this is one of our most confronting shoots on the tour. On our way back to Dhaka, if time allows we will make a second stop at the rice drying courtyards.

Bangladesh: Cultural Photography Tour Day 6

For most of this morning we will be photographing the workers of a gargantuan brick making factory where we will explore the entire process of making bricks. Images we may capture here include men carrying materials on their heads, spilling brick dust as they go and then creating bricks by hand using traditional methods. Lingering here until late morning, we will leave for Chattogram in the afternoon.

Bangladesh: Cultural Photography Tour Day 7

Today we will make an early morning visit to Chattogram’s largest fish market where we will photograph men offloading catches from traditional wooden Bangladeshi trawlers. The rest of the day will be spent exploring the fish drying yards and fishing trawlers at Cox’s Bazaar.

Bangladesh: Cultural Photography Tour Day 8

A full day of photographing the Moon Boats on stunning Cox’s Bazaar, the longest sand beach in the world. Today we will explore all aspects of Moon boat fishing including drying fish, salt pans and the brightly coloured boats with their fishermen. We will remain until sunset where our final shoot will be capturing silhouettes of these beautiful and iconic Bangladeshi boats as they go to sea.

Bangladesh: Cultural Photography Tour Day 9

Another early start to visit a largest fish drying factory in Cox’s Bazaar. This incredible place is adorned with hundreds of racks of fish that will dry in the sun. We will photograph the fish workers going about their daily chores.

In the afternoon we will take a short flight from South Bay back to Dhaka.

Bangladesh: Cultural Photography Tour Day 10

Today we will drive to a pottery village to photograph ceramic workers making pots by hand before allowing them to dry in the sun and then having them fired. Our journey will take us over the Padma River on one of Bangladesh’s largest bridges. We will also be travelling through country roads lined with tiny villages, rice paddies and pretty Dotala Houses.

The rest of our day will be spent on the road doing street photography in local villages.

Bangladesh: Cultural Photography Tour Day 11

A pre-dawn start awaits us as we drive out to visit the Otter Fishermen in the remote Sundarban region. These fishermen use ‘pet’ otters to help them catch fish in a thousand year old tradition of this remote region of Bangladesh. The otters help the fishermen lure fish into their nets after a period of training and the skill of doing this is one that is handed from father to son over generations. After the early morning visit to these charismatic fishing families we will explore a local market doing street photography before taking the expressway back to Dhaka.

In the afternoon we will drive back to Dhaka, where, if time permits, we will visit a bustling Bangladeshi train station and wander the platforms for photography of passenger traffic, people in train windows and others carrying goods to and from the trains until sunset.

Bangladesh: Cultural Photography Tour Day 12

On the outskirts of Dhaka we will visit a river where over 3000 daily carriers, work to bring coal, bricks and sand on their heads between the land and a variety of boats used to transport their products.

In the afternoon we will drive to northern Bangladesh to visit a colourful village with traditional yoghurt making factories. We will spend the rest of the afternoon photographing the yoghurt workers, their homes and people in the villages.

Bangladesh: Cultural Photography Tour Day 13

At dawn today we will start our day photographing the stunning red chilli farms and drying areas. Our tour will take place when the harvest of chillis is at its peak and we will explore colourful local women sorting through millions of red chillis, making lines of them to dry in a large courtyard.

In this same region, there are many rice drying fields. Unlike the rice courtyards earlier in the trip, here the rice is dried in long lines and raked by workers who will then take the rice to small workshops where it is husked.

We will then head to a large man-made peninsula which is home to more chilli drying and also traditional fishermen on the river.

Finally we will visit a small jute making workshop before we return to Dhaka.

Bangladesh: Cultural Photography Tour Day 14

On our final morning of the tour we will visit a large poultry market to photography the vendors selling all manner of birds including chickens, ducks and turkeys. After a late breakfast you can opt to have a rest or head to one of the city’s markets for some last minute souvenir shopping. Lunch is included before an afternoon or evening flight. Your tour will end with your transfer to Dhaka airport.

Bangladesh: The Ship Breakers and More Tour Report 2024

by Inger Vandyke

Nothing can ever prepare you for travel in Bangladesh. As one of the world’s most over-populated countries, it’s hard to imagine a small country shared by so many people. Arriving in the country’s capital Dhaka, I felt instantly transported to the days I travelled in India when I was young. Chaos, traffic, grime, hustle, pollution […]

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