Release by Éditions Odyssée of Bâtisseurs( Builders), by Ludovic Vauthier.
A photographic story produced between 2000 and 2011, this book is a visual tribute to the invisible men and women who are physically building India and Bangladesh, two countries representing nearly 20% of the world’s population. About a fifth of humanity is in the process of carrying out its industrial revolution.
In a context of globalization and growing economic integration, foreign financing makes it possible to accelerate the development of infrastructure. India and to a lesser extent Bangladesh are granted technological transfers by Western companies, lured by the growth prospects of this part of the world. However, despite spectacular economic progress, the social emergency persists: it is estimated that around a quarter of the Indian population and 40% of the Bangladeshi population still live below the poverty line. Given the priority of reducing this poverty as quickly as possible, the actors of this industrial revolution must create jobs by building these two countries.
The challenges of this economic development are enormous: the management of urbanization, its consequences on working conditions and access to raw materials and energy.
In India, as in Bangladesh, around two thirds of the population is rural. In the next twenty years, it is estimated that this same ratio will reverse in favor of cities. Many deprived peasants leave the countryside in the hope of finding employment in the cities. The harsh climatic conditions in Bangladesh make life even more difficult in the countryside.
As Harshita Sinha, a researcher at the London School of Economics, so rightly points out, capitalism “makes workers disposable, easily replaceable by the next candidate willing to assume the same risks for minimal reward,” yet “every brick laid, every beam lifted carries with it the weight of countless untold stories.”
Through these photographs, Bâtisseurs captures the faces, the determination and the self-sacrifice of these men and women who are laying the foundations of a new era, with the hope of seeing their children have access to a better life.
Ludovic Vauthier: Builders
Odyssey Éditions
Preface: Harshita Sinha, researcher at the London School of Economics
64 photographs
112 pages, format 30 x 23.5 cm
Hardcover, hardcover
Bilingual: French / English
ISBN: 978-2-494767-14-0
https://www.editionsodyssee.com/batisseurs/
https://www.ludovicvauthier.photography/
https://www.instagram.com/ludovic.vauthier/
