Shipwreckers

Chittagong, the second largest city in Bangladesh, has become the main place in the world for dismantling large ocean going ships and oil tankers, a massive recycling industry commonly known as shipwrecking. The so-called Chittagong "shipyard complex" consists of approximately ten kilometers of flat beaches and sand-banks where ships are stranded and, after any usable equipment is removed, broken down for their steel.

Dozens of thousands of people work there in hazardous conditions, without proper training and gear, using simple, manual tools, gas torches and primitive jacks. Tomasz Gudzowaty photographed these "shipwreckers" in 2004 and 2005. His black and white photographs show men and even children dwarfed by the giant vessels suggesting the vulnerability of the workers and the former beauty of the now polluted beaches.