Roger Adamson

Death comes early on the shipbreaking beaches of Bangladesh. Giant ships, workhorses of the rapacious consumer economy have come to the beach at Chittagong to die. But even useless and leaching toxins, oil and chemicals they are still worth more than the lives of the humans breaking them. With little to no safety equipment scores of men, often beginning work before they are 13 years old are killed and maimed each year. Their life expectancy remains a full 20 years lower than the national average. Is an industry that profits from salvaging the carcasses of its ships at the expense of the poorest people on the planet and its ecosystems itself beyond salvation?

Roger Adamson is the conscience of the global maritime and shipping industry, holding a mirror up to uncomfortable truths and exploring the tension between transformation and timelessness, trade and nature, liminality, and the threshold between old and new. From his studio overlooking the English Channel, the busiest shipping lane in the world and through his extensive global travel he captures the maritime environment, industry and its people balanced on the brink of epochal change.