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Portraits

  • Elum Bahar poses for a photo in Kutapalong unregistered camp on January 18, 2017 in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh. Alum, who is from Cheragpara village in Myanmar, saw all of her family, including her husband and daughter, killed by the military before she escaped and fled to Bangladesh 1 1/2 months ago. She says the military dragged her family's dead bodies into her home and set the house on fire after they killed them. {quote}I saw all the men abducted and killed. Some of the females were raped, all were killed. What I saw was horrible{quote} she says. More than 65,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar since October last year, after the Burmese army launched a campaign it calls {quote}clearance operations{quote} in response to an attack on border police on October 9, believed to have been carried out by Rohingya militants. Waves of Rohingya civilians have since fled across the border, most living in makeshift camps and refugee centers with harrowing stories on the Burmese army committing human-rights abuses, such as gang rape, arson and extrajudicial killing. The Rohingya, a mostly stateless Muslim group numbering about 1.1 million, are the majority in Rakhine state and smaller communities in Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia. The stateless Muslim group are routinely described by human rights organizations as the {quote}most oppressed people in the world{quote} and a {quote}minority that continues to face statelessness and persecution.{quote} (Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images)
  • Rohingya are seen during a rainstorm at Nayapara refugee camp
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  • February 2019 in Baan Klang village, Lampang province, Thailand.
  • A Burlesque performance is seen at Employees Only September 13, 2010. Allison Joyce for the New York Post.
  • A young child collects coal illegally from local open mines in Jharia, Jharrkhand, India, February 12, 2010. Women and children as young as 5 years old scavenge daily at the open and underground mines Jharia. The coal fields here were once used by companies, but then abandoned. The coal was exposed to the atmosphere, ignited, and underground fires spread across the towns. Locals in Jharia live over dozens of these underground coal fires that pump out toxic fumes and form fire pits that have led to several deaths and collapsed homes. They work alongside the fires, breathing fumes for up to 9 hours a day. The coal they collect earns them around $1 a day at the local markets. With coal scavengering a primary source of income for many residents, a proposed government relocation of residents is being met with resistance. Coal supplies 70% of India's energy and the largest concentration of the country's coal fields are in Jharrkhand.
  • Sunderbans, Bangladesh, May 20, 2010.
  • Muhammad Did Boxfaksis poses for a photo
  • Jamalida is seen in her makeshift house that she shares with 4 other refugees in 2017 in Kutalong Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Jamalida, who is 16 years old, came to Bangladesh 1 month ago from Shilkhali village in Myanmar. She says that one day in December the military moved into her village and started occupying the mosque and beating or killing whoever came in. {quote}One day they attacked our home. I wasn't able to flee in time and they caught me and tied my hands and legs with rope. For 3 hours, 4 soldiers took turns raping me until I lost consciousness.{quote} When she woke up she fled to Bangladesh, where she made her way to Kutalapong refugee camp. {quote}I never had peace in Burma and this last incident was horrible. Here, I feel peace. I can sleep well here, I can go outside safely. In Burma, I couldn't go outside and I wasn't safe in my home. We don't have enough food here, but at least we have peace.{quote} she says {quote}Every night when I sleep I have nightmares and I relive the rapeagain”
  • Mai poses for a photo at Can Do Bar February 21, 2019, in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Photo by Allison Joyce for American Jewish World Service.
  • 12 year old Shobe Majaraz hugs 12 year old Suma on the beach February 23, 2015.
  • SHERPUR, BANGLADESH - SEPTEMBER 21: Habiba and Rumana post for a photo on the road outside their village on September 21, 2021 in Sherpur, Bangladesh. Rumana was 12 or 13 when she joined the Hijra community. She was born with incomplete genitals and never felt or acted like a boy. She liked to dress like a girl, play with girls, and was always attracted to boys. Rumana met a Hijra group in the market when she was 12 year old and they invited her to join them. {quote}There are two parts of Hijra life; the bad, people bully and hate us. But the positive is that we life together, eat together, have community.{quote} Habiba says {quote}I am also a human being, I have a right to live life as a Hijra and I should not be deprived of that.{quote} She was always bullied in school for acting feminine so she dropped out in class 6. She met some Hijras in a market and joined them when she was very young. In South Asia, “hijras” are identified as a category of people who are assigned as male at birth but develop a feminine gender identity. They are generally outcasted from mainstream society, and have no other way of earning money other than harassing and extorting people for money. A new government initiative aims to change that. Recently, 40 Hijra were given homes, grants, loans, livestock, and livelihood training in an effort to make them self sufficient. (Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images)
  • UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA - SEPTEMBER 8: 8 year old Sadaf (name changed) stands for a photo in her home September 8, 2016 in Uttar Pradesh, India. 3 months ago she was raped by a doctor in her village. She was walking to the market to buy sweets for herself when the doctor, who her family estimates is around 50 years old, forcefully pulled her inside his clinic and raped her. Afterwards she stumbled out onto the street and fainted. The doctor's brother and friend found her and dumped her body at her home. When her family found her she was covered in blood and profusely bleeding. She told them what happened and they went to the police but the police refused to register a case, they said that they should compromise, because the doctor was offering them 2 lakh rupees (around $2,989) to drop the case. The family refused, and says {quote}They destroyed the life of our child, how can we compromise?{quote}. They estimate that they and their neighbors had to go to the police station 10 times before the police agreed to register the case. For 5 days after the rape, Sadaf continued to bleed and they had to shuffle from hospital to hospital looking for a hospital that had facilities that could provide adequate care for her. Since the rape Sadaf has been sick and week and is too afraid to leave the house or return to school. The family is also afraid to let her leave the house because they say the rapist comes from a rich and powerful family and could harm her or kidnap her. Before the rape she enjoyed going to school and dreamed of being an English teacher when she grows up. She loved to play board games and cricket with her best friend, Nisha, but she hasn't seen her for 3 months. Sadaf's uncle, who is fighting the case, has taken out two loans to help pay for transportation to the court house and for lawyer bills. Every time he has to go to court he must take off work from his job as a day laborer. Sadaf's aunt says {quote}For us, this is very difficult because the law doesn't support us. We hav
  • Sunderbans, Bangladesh, May 20, 2010.
  • DHAKA, BANGLADESH - JANUARY 25: Models are seen backstage before TRESemmé Bangladesh Fashion Week on January 25, 2020 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images)
  • A woman sits on a seawall in Palu, Indonesia.
  • Razia Sultana was born in Myanmar but is a Bangladesh citizen. She grew up in Chittagong in the tight knit Rohingya community. Her dream was always to be a barrister but after she was married her husbands family didn't approve of her studying further. {quote}My life is full of struggle{quote} She and her family were involved with the Rohingya activist groups ARNO and BRC, and in 2009 the Bangladesh government shut the organizations down. Two of her family members were put in jail and into exile abroad. {quote}The influx broke me totally. I was sick and traumatized and full of feat in my heart. I couldn't control myself. My friends and family asked me what I wanted and I said that I have to do something for women. That was the start. I gave up everything to work for my nation, to get them their rights, their human rights. What's been going on is wrong.{quote} She has since trained hundreds of women in livelihood and literacy training. {quote}There is no life in the camps, they have become a burden for the world. If there is no skills training, no education, they will become subhumans! They’re deprived of all opportunities and denied a normal life. They will become desperate and you can't blame them or anybody , it's like you're creating a bomb! They're frustrated and cant think wrong or right. We have to prevent this, we have to solve the issue of going back, you cant keep them in Bangladesh, this isn't their land.”
  • 70 year old Nirmalabai Sakaram Kedar poses for a photo in her school. She was married at the age of 9, to a 25 year old man, and was sent to live with him when she turned 16. and never had the opportunity to go to school until now.There are 30 elderly women between 60 and 90 years old who are going to school for the first time in their life at the Aajibaichi Shala or the Grandmothers’ School, in Phangane village of Thane district, India. Most of them were deprived of a formal education as a child. Their families were either too poor to afford their education or they simply thought “it was sheer waste of time and money to invest in a girl child’s studies”. The common perception was that the girls, many of whom would be married off while they were underage, were destined to do the household chores only. The school, which started on the International Women’s Day this March, aims to empower the elderly women and break the stereotypes.
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  • Ishita poses for a photo at the Shaka Surf Club April 9, 2016 in Kodi Bengre, India
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  • Ishita poses for a photo at the Shaka Surf Club April 9, 2016 in Kodi Bengre, India
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  • Ishita surfs April 9, 2016 in Kodi Bengre, India
  • Dr Nazrul and nurses pose for a photo at Khulna hospital. Photo by Allison Joyce.
  • Sarah Pallack and Jenna Gerbino are photographed at the W Hotel February 23, 2011 in New York. Allison Joyce for the New York Post.
  • Cecilia Rodhe, mother of Chicago Bull's player Joakim Noah, is photographed in her Brooklyn home May 5, 2011.
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  • Noddy Nweke is photographed at Lincoln Center during New York Fashion Week September 14, 2011. REUTERS/Allison Joyce (UNITED STATES)
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  • Faun Corry and Benjamin Kay The District in Manhattan January 21, 2013. Allison Joyce for the New York Daily News
  • Lakshmi Venkatesh
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  • THE BOWERY KITCHEN August 31, 2012. Allison Joyce for the New York Daily News.
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  • November 30, 2011.Allison Joyce/ For the Telegraph-Journal..Art historian John Richardson stands for a photograph in his Manhattan apartment November 30, 2011.
  • Shahudul Haque, a friend of Archer Blood's, poses for a photograph April 4, 2015 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Allison Joyce for the New York Times
  • MTA Chaplain Rabbi Berkowitz on S train at Grand Central January 27, 2013. Allison Joyce for the New York Daily News
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  • Betsey Johnson is seen in her studio in New York City
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  • Intro
  • Portraits
  • Photojournalism
    • Singles
    • Circus
      • India's Rambo Circus
      • Growing up in the Bangladesh Circus
    • The Bangladesh Surf Girls
    • The Hijra Village of Bangladesh
    • Eid During Covid
    • Child Marriage & Sex Trafficking in Bangladesh
    • Sri Lanka's Missing
    • The Scars of War
    • The School For Child Brides
    • Meghalaya; Where Women Rule
    • Thailand's Sex Workers
    • Rohingya
      • Singles
      • Rape Survivors Speak Out
      • The Widow's Village
      • Child Marriage
      • "I'm Better Than Before, But Inside My Heart Lies So Much Pain"
      • The Rohingya Community of Chicago, USA
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