This photograph was taken by Bangladeshi photographer, Taslima Akhter, and captures the final embrace of two people found in the rubble of the collapsed garment factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh on 24 April 2013. We urge you not to scroll down if you are a sensitive reader.
Bangladesh photographer, writer and founder of Pathshala, the South Asian Institute of Photography, Shahidul Alam said:
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.
Taslima Akhter recalls that tragic day.
I spent the entire day the building collapsed on the scene, watching as injured garment workers were being rescued from the rubble. I remember the frightened eyes of relatives — I was exhausted both mentally and physically. Around 2 a.m., I found a couple embracing each other in the rubble. The lower parts of their bodies were buried under the concrete. The blood from the eyes of the man ran like a tear. When I saw the couple, I couldn’t believe it. I felt like I knew them — they felt very close to me. I looked at who they were in their last moments as they stood together and tried to save each other — to save their beloved lives.
Every time I look back to this photo, I feel uncomfortable — it haunts me. It’s as if they are saying to me, we are not a number — not only cheap labor and cheap lives. We are human beings like you. Our life is precious like yours, and our dreams are precious too.
[Source: TIME]
