Salma Abedin Prithi: Torn

Overview

Torn explores the minds of patients in Bangladesh during the Covid-19 outbreak. I researched newspaper coverage of people in hospitals, collected the images, and reconstructed and enriched these personal situations, which tend to be absent in mainstream media. Mainstream media homogenises. It does not attempt to delve into people’s sufferings. I have viewed it differently, using the technique of stage photography to express people’s anxieties.

Peoples’ lives are wrought by multiple layers of problems in Bangladesh, including social negligence, food insecurity, and domestic violence, aggravated by the growing fear and anxiety around the virus. The world after Covid-19 will probably not be the same as before; the ‘new normal’ will perhaps defy what is expected. Torn is also personal as it attempts to be a testament, a collective memory of personal moments during the pandemic, moments that are unexplainable, and at times, psychosomatic.