Sam Edmonds: Robindra Boys

Artist’s Statement:

Robindra Shorbod, a small park in the South West of Dhaka, Bangladesh is home to around fifteen street kids. Street kids that beg for money, collect plastic containers to sell for recycling and most importantly, share every ounce of food they earn with the ten or so stray dogs they have adopted.

In each of these portraits, the Robindra boys are individuals. But together they become members of a family. A family of two species and members of each species that have been swept aside in one of the world’s largest cities. These portraits show the strength, resilience and most of all, camaraderie between these orphaned individuals.

Rubel, Sumaia, Shakil, Osman, Noyon, Ladin, Azizul, Al Amin and Shamim along with “Tiger”, “Michael”, “Romeo”, “Bullet”, “Kalu”, “Moti”, “Bagha”, “Tom”, “Jax” and “Lalu” were not told to pose – they entered the frame with their favorite companion and the shutter was released. What these portraits speak about is the ability of these kids – so socioeconomically deprived – to shine as an exemplar of companionship between these two species. In a corner of the globe seen by most as the last place for animal rights consciousness, these kids show that the expanding circle of empathy is universal across economic and sociopolitical divides.

Artist’s Bio:

Sydney, Australia

I am a social documentist and photojournalist from Sydney, Australia. The main focus of my practice revolves around social and environmental injustices with an emphasis on humans’ interaction with other species. Whilst earning a degree in photography at the Queensland College of Art, I have exhibited in several countries around the world, attended a World Press masterclass at Chobi Mela, Bangladesh and been hired by Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to document the last slaughter of minke whales in Antarctica.