New Delhi-Based Photographer Honored for Image Capturing the “Slow Violence” of Ganges Erosion in West Bengal

(New York, NY — November 30, 2022) — Photography 4 Humanity, the photography pillar of the High Note Global Initiative, proudly announces Masood Sarwer as the winner of the 2022 High Note Global Prize in Photography. His evocative photograph, The Endless Dance of Erosion — taken in Malda, West Bengal — provides a poignant visual narrative of the devastating human toll of land erosion along the Ganges, and the slow-motion displacement of communities whose homes are being dismantled, piece by piece, by the river itself.

The winning image depicts Nurul Islam, an 80-year-old man seated in a chair amidst the dismantling of his own home. His testimony accompanies the photograph: “Last week my wife died due to cardiac arrest, and the following week we started dismantling our house when we heard the Ganges started eroding the land again.” Sarwer, a New Delhi-based documentary photographer whose practice focuses on the cultures and crises of West Bengal’s Murshidabad district where he grew up, has long documented what he calls the region’s slow violence.

“The reason I took this photograph is to show the slow violence of the region and how it has created a permanent impact on the socioeconomic conditions and demographic dislocation. The slow and steady riverbank erosion has not only given birth to a class of environmental refugees but also has denied the right to rehabilitation.” — Masood Sarwer

In official partnership with United Nations Human Rights, Photography 4 Humanity invites amateur and professional photographers from around the world to bear witness to the human dimension of our most urgent challenges. As one of the two founding pillars of the High Note Global Initiative — alongside High Note Music — the program stands for the conviction that a single image can move the conscience of the world.

“The selected photographs in this exhibit show both the devastating humanitarian impacts of climate change and the urgency with which we must act to prevent further harm. These images have the power to shape our understanding of this global crisis in ways that words cannot.” — David Clark, founder, High Note Global

Sarwer’s winning image and more than thirty finalist photographs were unveiled this week at CU Boulder, host of the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit (December 2–4) in partnership with United Nations Human Rights. The exhibit will remain on display at NEST Studio for the Arts throughout the Summit before moving to the United Nations headquarters in New York for UN Human Rights Day on December 10.

For more information, visit www.photography4humanity.com.