Photo by TASLIMA AKHTER
TIME: Many powerful photographs have been made in the aftermath of the devastating collapse of a garment factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. But one photo, by Bangladeshi photographer Taslima Akhter, has emerged as the most heart wrenching, capturing an entire country’s grief in a single image. Shahidul Alam, Bangladeshi photographer, writer and founder of Pathshala, the South Asian Institute of Photography, said of the photo: “This image, while deeply disturbing, is also hauntingly beautiful. An embrace in death, its tenderness rises above the rubble to touch us where we are most vulnerable. By making it personal, it refuses to let go. This is a photograph that will torment us in our dreams. Quietly it tells us. Never again.” MORE
NEW YORK TIMES: Taslima Akhter was overcome with emotion when she arrived at the Tazreen Fashions garment factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Sunday evening, four hours after fire tore through the building. She watched firefighters battle the blaze — which killed at least 112 people — as throngs of workers and family members waited to see if their loved ones had survived. She was overwhelmed, but not surprised. Ms. Akhter had photographed four 
other fires in Bangladeshi garment factories in which scores of workers, mostly women, had died. She has devoted her life — and her photography — to championing the rights of workers who toil under dangerous conditions. “It’s not an easy experience for me,” she said. “But I took photos because they work dawn to dusk for very little money and their lives are considered to be so cheap, worth nothing.” MORE
REUTERS: Eight people were killed when a fire swept through a clothing factory in Bangladesh, police and an industry association official said on Thursday, as the death toll from the collapse of another factory building two weeks ago climbed above 900. The fire, in an industrial district of Dhaka, comes amid global attention on safety standards in Bangladesh’s booming garment industry following the catastrophic collapse of Rana Plaza, on the outskirts of the city, in the world’s deadliest industrial accident since the Bhopal disaster in India in 1984. MORE
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