From Lushai to demise, iPhone project depicting memoirs of Karnaphuli river, tale of the river and people living across it. Karnaphuli, a river of Southeastern Bangladesh is the protagonist of the story. In the history of this part of Bangladesh the river Karnaphuli has a long significance. Personally I’m also very much connected to the river. I grew up on the other side of the river, as long as the time changed and I had to move to another side, in the urban side of the river. Thus Karnaphuli divided my life; this river is like a dividing line for my life. Through crossing the line I grew up as an adult from a child.
Chittagong, a southern city and the major financial center of Bangladesh, where I’m living in as an adult. As like as me, the city Chittagong has grown as major city through the line of Karnaphuly. As time has passed and as long as Bangladesh is booming as an emerging economy in this part of the world, the city Chittagong is growing bigger and busier. But the river Karnaphuli is slowly proceeding on the verge of demise as the city grows.
The history and the ethnographic scenario of Chittagong have developed based on the line of Karnaphuli. As a photographer I decided to witness how the river shaped the livelihood of the people of this particular part of the country, and how the landscape is changing across the river Karnaphuli. As long the landscape is being changed, the connection between river and the people is also changing. Because of the urbanization and the continuous demise of the river many people’s lives has been changed across Karnaphuli. Many traditional livelihoods have been disappeared, many people moved to another profession. Through this story I’m finding these connections of people and the river karnaphuli.
Kazi Riasat Alve, 1990, is a Bangladesh based photographer, at first he majored in Marketing and communication studies but he always had a vision… More »