Description
Art for Sale Jakir 2010 photo 3/3 Jakir and his son. 25 years have passed since I photographed Jakir alone in the monsoon rain. He is now 32 years old, working at a water purification plant in Saudi Arabia. He returns to Bangladesh regularly to visit his young son, Zahid Hosain, aged 8. The boy is cared for by his uncle on a farm in the Bay of Bengal when he is working in Saudi Arabia. I timed my visit to coincide with Jakir’s return but the photoshoot necessitated a 16-hour journey from Dhaka to the Bay of Bengal by car and assorted ferries. Zahid Hosain bore an uncanny resemblance to the small boy that I had photographed standing in the rain a quarter of a century previously. Zahid, pictured with his father. photograph by Ian Spratt one of three images .
Who Is Ian Spratt
Photographer Ian Spratt has had a career so varied it is hard to compare. Many photographers find a niche that they excel at and pursue that line throughout their career.
The work of Ian Spratt is as varied as you could imagine. From industrial photography to glamour photography Ian has experienced it all. And excelled in all categories.
Ian started his career as an Industrial photographer working for British Aircraft Corporation but was inspired to broaden his photography into a more journalistic approach while living in Iran with his parents.
18 months later, Ian came back to the UK and felt that his talents could be better deployed working for the national press. Working as a freelance he contributed to newspapers and magazines and in the 1970’s was rewarded with a job for the Sunday People.
In 1985, while on assignment for the Sunday People he was introduced to the plight of orphans in Bangladesh.
The photographs he took at the orphanage earned him the title of Photographer of the Year in 1986.
His work was with the orphans was to become a lifelong obsession.
He tells us ”Since then, I have visited Bangladesh on many occasions to continue documenting the lives of the children that I originally met and photographed in 1985/86.
In 1996 I returned and photographed many of those children resulting in ‘How Lucky We Are’ an exhibition of comparative images sponsored by Ilford Films that premiered at the NEC, Birmingham.
Ian had a successful studio in South London where he photographed beauty, glamour and lifestyle photography for many magazines. He then moved to work in Spain for seven years and now lives in the UK where he has just completed a documentary project at Guys Hospital in London and is coaching medical students in photography.
In 2010 he returned to Bangladesh after 25 years to trace and photograph the same children (now adults) once again. The photos resulted in a series of exhibitions and presentations as part of a fund and awareness raising effort that has been his passion since the first visits.
