Skeletons of half-scrapped ships and workers tearing them apart on the mud-flats of Bangladesh are vividly captured in a new photographic exhibition coming to the National Maritime Museum next month.

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January 14, 2008: Skeletons of half-scrapped ships and workers tearing them apart on the mud-flats of Bangladesh are vividly captured in a new photographic exhibition coming to the National Maritime Museum next month.
The exhibition, titled Steel Beach – Shipbreaking in Bangladesh, draws together more than 40 images by Sydney photographer Andrew Bell to show the tough reality and dangers of the unregulated ship-breaking industry. Near the town of Sitakunda, on the mud flats of the Bay of Bengal, the beach graveyard for old ships stretches more than 25 kilometres. It is home to approximately 65 separately-owned ship scrap-yards and more than 40,000 workers.

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Andrew Bell’s photographs capture the unwanted oil tankers, passenger liners and fishing boats beached on these mud-flats where thousands of labourers work with blowtorches, hammers and brute strength to dismantle and recycle every inch of the giant steel structures. He portrays the dangerous conditions the labourers work under without basic safety equipment. Bell trained in London and has been a photographer for more than 30 years. He has travelled extensively with his camera and documented the tribes of Kenya, the Chernobyl site and the Swenkas of Soweto (South Africa).
Steel Beach – Shipbreaking in Bangladesh opens to the public on 8 February, 2008. Admission is free. It will remain on view until 30 March. The Australian National Maritime Museum is located in Sydney’s Darling Harbour. It is open daily from 9.30 am to 5 pm. For more information, phone (02) 9298 3777 or visit www.anmm.gov.au.