Shefali went to work in Saudi Arabia in April 2018 where she was often beaten with a electric cable and her employer gave her food only once a day. After severe physical and mental torture, she managed to return to Bangladesh and was hospitalised for two months. She now works as a nurse in Bangladesh even though she has yet to recover fully from her illness. Her husband, who is unemployed, often calls her a “bad woman”, even though she is the one who feeds the family. From ongoing series Pain of Slavery.
Sandipa Malakar is a documentary photographer based in Kolkata. An avid traveller, she started using photography to document people, culture and places around the world. Although she already has a Masters in Genetic Science from Calcutta University and a MBA in Human Resource from West Bengal University of Technology, she enrolled in the prestigious photojournalism programme at the Danish School of Media and Journalism(DMJX) when she decided that telling stories with visuals is her true calling. City of Salvation, her extended project on Varanasi, a city on the Ganges, has been exhibited in Les Focales du Pays d’Auge and Festival Photo Dans La Ville in France; Xishuangbanna International Photo Festival in China; and Indian Photo Festival 2020. Another ongoing project, Pain of Slavery, was selected as Hall of Excellence by the Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she also worked on a pilot project to help photojournalists through an online platform funded by OsloMet, Norway, in partnership with Pathshala South Asian Media Institute in Bangladesh, and photo.circle in Nepal. In 2020, she received two grants from Sahapedia, an open encyclopaedic resource on arts, cultures and histories of India, to complete two projects, one of which is on Durga Puja, a major religious festival for Hindus in the West Bengal area.
Quick links to POY Asia 2023 Judges: Zhou Yang / Takaaki Iwabu / Uma Bista / Ki-Ho Park / Parisa Azadi / Willy Kurniawan / Suzanne Lee / Jilson Tiu / Sandipa Malakar / Nathan Tsui
Indian widows living in an ashram in Vrindavan dance as they celebrate Holi, the festival of colour, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Because of the strict health guidelines, the celebration was restricted to their own premises.
"I believe a photojournalist's responsibility is not only to make good photos but also to raise awareness to make changes for a better world."
Sandipa Malakar
Sandipa’s long-term project The City of Salvation, an intimate look at life along the Ganges, has been exhibited in China, France and India.
Christian brothers attend a religious procession with their traditional dresses holding candles in their hand in the streets of Seville, Spain during Easter 2022.
After the war in Ukraine broke out, Miraslova, 8, fled Ukraine for Denmark with her mother. Among the few things she managed to bring along is this soft toy named Pumka, which has been keeping her company for the past five years.
In Kolkata, owners abandoned their horses during the Covid-19 pandemic as they could not afford to feed them.
