The shipyards along the outskirts of the Bangladesh capital are a flurry dangerous boat breaking and rebuilding. The facilities, which employ around 15,000 workers at around $5 a day, work to both break down massive shipping vessels as well as create new ships from the parts. Workers can be seen torches and welding equipment to tears huge pieces of metal from the vessels, sans eye, hand, or face protection. Other workers will be found scaling the tall ships on ramshackle ladders or strolling along the high edges of the ship decks, the only thing to keep them from falling is their own balance.
Born in 1965 in Stans, Switzerland, Josef Buergi started around 2000 with photography. He studied engineering at the Bale Institute of Technology and works now full-time as a project and team leader for the local government. As a pure autodidact, he developed the knowledge by himself but also by studying the masters. His music photography, together with travel, have become two of his life’s passions.
