Dhaka, from above

A picture can speak a thousand words. One particular aerial I shot 35,000 feet above Dhaka in Bangladesh is a testament of unbridled urbanization. What we can see in the photograph is how a developing country can experience a population boom that is fast turning out to be a problem in human settlement and food sustenance.

Being Bangladesh’s capital city, Dhaka is the political, cultural and economic hub of the country. As in any third world country, the centralization of power has its perks. Literacy rate is highest in the city and the infrastructure is most developed. On the negative side are problems on overpopulation, pollution and traffic.

With a population of 14 million, Dhaka probably holds more than people than it can handle but the urbanization is a flow that obviously cannot be stopped.


35,000 feet over Dhaka, Bangladesh, November 18, 2005
Canon EOS 350D, 1/80s, f/6.3, 55mm, ISO 100