The Cox’s Bazar sea beach: Where masons can be photographers

On a regular day on the Cox's Bazar sea beach, the moment you walk near the Sugandha Point, a host of photographers would follow you like shadows. 

Dressed in a red jersey – authorised by the beach tourism authority – one of these photographers would request you nicely, and pour down his wisdom on why you really need to frame the sweet memories on the beach. 

As you walk into the water ignoring his presence, he may turn to your partner to repeat his efforts, and possibly convince you both to hire him, perhaps at a reduced price.

But on a rainy morning during the second wave of lockdown, when we approached the Sugandha Point walking past an un-walkable street that is taking forever to repair, we instead listened to the roaring waves of the Bay of Bengal from a long distance. 

The beach was unusually free of human hullabaloo.  

Unlike regular times, there were only a handful of photographers at the outer corner of the police box cordoned by traffic barriers. 

They placed the barriers to deter anyone from entering the beach, especially the photographers. 

Since the photographers were not allowed on the beach, they were roaming around 'under-covered' and their cameras were carefully tucked in bags. 

Without the usual jerseys, we struggled to identify them.

"The police brothers are fine, but the personnel appointed by the district administration to patrol the beach give us a hard time making a living out of photography. They chase us whenever we are near the beach with a client, affront us by calling names," a smirking photographer Mohammed Selim told us in front of a hotel near the beach. 

The photographers at the Cox's Bazar sea beach usually try to speak standard Bangla even though you could easily detect their local tone. They put an effort to be 'nice' and 'cordial'. 

Selim did not put any effort. From his language, tone, and approach, you could sense a sort of apathy in him about the whole photography thing. 

In front of the lonely hotel while chit-chatting with the photographers, we learned the story of a mason turned photographer whose real choice of profession actually lies in masonry. 

"I am doing better during the lockdown than the other photographers because this is not the only skill I have. I am a mason. I have joined photography only for some extra money," Selim told us, adding that he is not the only manual labourer who became a beach photographer. 

On the Cox's Bazar beach including Sugandha, Laboni, Kolatoli, Inani and all other points combined, there are over a thousand registered and unregistered photographers. 

Syed Murad Islam, executive magistrate of the district's tourism and protocol department told us that currently there are 569 registered photographers at the Sugandha, Laboni, and Kolatoli area while 122 others at the Inani beach. 

The tourism department charges the photographers an annual registration fee of Tk4,000. Murad admitted that a large number of photographers still remain unregistered. 

Hence, with over a thousand photographers, the longest natural sea beach in the world hosts the largest photographers' community in the country. 

Photographer Selim in his usual louder pitch said nearly half of these photographers are actually manual labourers like him. 

A few of them have their own cameras while others rent cameras from local shops on a daily basis, paying them a portion of their income as fee. 

Other photographers who joined our chit chat with Selim include Sujan, a full-time photographer, who silently agreed with him. 

Unlike Selim, Sujan sounded very polite while explaining the worries and aspirations of photographers as the lockdown and absence of tourists dried out their income. 

Father of a little girl, Sujan is focused and has taken his career in photography seriously. He wants to build a studio in the future. 

To properly listen to what Sujan has to say, you will need to pay attention and sit close to him. "Even in the time of loss, you can survive just fine if you know what you are doing," Sujan said, adding that personally he has been able to find a living through a few tourists who sometimes gather at the beach defying the lockdown. 

However, nearly a dozen others we spoke to, some of them full timers and others like Selim, said they have been struggling to meet their ends. 

When I mentioned to them how Sujan has been doing it defying hard times, some of the other photographers implied Sujan will get a Tk1,000 bill from your pocket if you hire him. 

"And he will do this nicely, and professionally. He is that good," they said. 

But the people who hire these photographers would often tell you something else. They would tell you how these photography gimmicks sometimes turn out to be a complete rip-off.  

For example, meet Ruhul Amin, an Economics student of National University, and his mid-aged uncle who went to the Cox's Bazar sea beach for the first time in early 2020. 

Immediately after Rohul jumped into the water at the Kolatoli beach, the first thing that came to his mind was to capture the beautiful moments on camera. 

He immediately hired the photographer who had been following him for Tk3 per photo. 

The tourism department allows the photographers to charge up to Tk5 per photo. But often they charge less. 

Ruhul and his uncle celebrated their beach moments by taking photos in a myriad of styles for over an hour. 

They took photos while lying on the water, jumping in the air, showing V-signs, swimming, jumping into the water and in any other crazy way you can imagine people usually do when they are at the beach. 

Engrossed in it all, they had no idea how fast the time passed. 

When the time of billing came, the photographer said he took around 400 photos. That means Ruhul had to pay more than Tk1,000. 

"I was at loss. I did not imagine he would end up taking so many photos that fast. I thought he would pick 50 to 100 photos. We did not have much in cash either. Besides, we did not like half of his photos. We requested him to give us 100 of the selected photos, but he did not agree," Ruhul told The Business Standard. 

Ruhul finally called his cousin to bring them cash to get rid of the photographers. "I had my lessons learned. I bought a camera in anger after I returned from the beach." 

Do you harass the tourists? I asked the photographers. 

As all of them retorted.

"The beach tourism authority set us a specific charge per photo, and we never charge more than that. We rather take nearly half of the provisioned charge. Yet, most of the tourists bargain with us instead of paying our bills," Sujan said. 

"What we do, we do right in front of them, right?" said Selim, the mason turned photographer in his local dialect. 

As our 'adda' went on, some people scattered around the long beach were getting ready with their fishing nets. 

Ban on fishing has been activated since 20 May. It will go on till 23 July. But for these people at the beach, life and living must go on, no matter what.