TITLE: Steel and skin

This photo series was taken in 2022 at a ship repair and dismantling yard on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh—a place where giants of industry come to rest, and where men labor in their shadows. Here, steel meets sweat, and rusted hulls are slowly dismantled by human hands in a process that is as raw as it is perilous.

My lens focused on the workers: men who weld, grind, lift, and balance on precarious ledges beneath massive vessels. They toil without the protection of modern safety gear, their bodies exposed to dust, toxic fumes, and physical danger. Yet their faces reflect not only fatigue but a quiet resolve, and in many, a surprising trace of pride.

Amid the industrial decay, I captured moments of startling intimacy: a man peering through a gridded window, his eyes weary but alert; another wrapped in chains heavier than his own frame; a pair of laborers crouched beneath the skeleton of a hull, their gaze fixed on me with a mix of curiosity and guarded dignity. One portrait shows a man with crutches leaning from his small workshop, watching others do the work he once did.

This place is more than a ship graveyard—it is a microcosm of survival. Around the yard thrive tiny repair shops, tea stalls, and makeshift homes. People live where others see only abandonment and scrap.

In stark black and white, I stripped the chaos down to contrast and form. The metal surfaces, the etched faces, and the sheer scale of the ships become metaphors for power and vulnerability.

“Steel and Skin” is a visual testimony to the resilience of those who labor unseen—battling giants with bare hands and stubborn hearts, in a world that rarely looks their way.

AUTHOR: Tomas Derner (Germany)