His own sign language of sweeping, dramatised gestures is rarely fully understood by those outside Asom Khan’s closest friends and family but the 15-year-old is able to speak through his art and photography.
From his shelter in the Rohingya refugee camps of south-east Bangladesh, Khan takes photos to share the stories of his community – of his elderly neighbours, disabled people, and of women at work and in times of crisis.
It was a journey that started with a photograph of him in 2017 – tears running down his face as he hung on to the side of an aid truck – that won awards for a Canadian press photographer, Kevin Frayer, as 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh from massacres in what the UN described as ethnic cleansing by the Myanmar military.
That photo has stuck with Khan, who is deaf and mute, and when he saw other Rohingya becoming photographers, using budget smartphones to document daily life, he fully understood the power of an image.
“I was inspired by other Rohingya photographers. When there were floods or fires or other issues, they would come and take pictures. I saw that there was some power in it,” says Khan, whose friend interprets for him.
Since arriving in Bangladesh, he has also been producing vivid paintings, sometimes of idyllic Myanmar villages scenes, others of those villages under attack and the chaos he witnessed.
Raised by his aunt and uncle after his mother died in childbirth, Khan had no opportunity to learn formal sign language so he improvised, teaching his own version to those around him. But art and photography has given him a freedom to communicate without an interpreter.
“I can’t speak but my photos do. I take pictures of the elderly – how they spend their days – and of how we suffer in our daily lives here,” says Khan.
The camps Khan arrived at six years ago quickly became the world’s largest, with almost 1 million Rohingya crammed into bamboo and plastic shelters.
As conditions have worsened, with education, work and movement limited, international attention has died down, leaving the refugees to deal with their own problems. As long as he is unable to return to Myanmar – and with violence continuing, this is unlikely to happen soon – Khan feels a responsibility to capture their experiences.
“I feel like when I show pictures of the Rohingya situation to the world, they understand a bit more what we face.”
Frayer, the photographer now with Getty Images who took Khan’s photo in 2017, says he clearly remembers the moment when he saw the boy clinging to a truck amid a chaotic crowd waiting for rations.
“Even thinking of it now, I can see it almost in slow motion. I remember taking a few frames and then he disappeared into the crowd below.
“I remember feeling quite moved by how much courage this young boy showed,” says Frayer.
He found Khan again in 2018 and spent time with him, finally learning more of his story as they communicated through his sign language and his drawings.
“I was so moved and astounded to learn that he had taken an interest in photography. I saw in his artwork that he was incredibly talented at telling his story through his art, and that photography would indeed be a very strong tool for him,” says Frayer.
“I am not sure if my picture had anything to do with this passion he has for photography now, but I am very glad to know that he sees the power it can have.
“He told me in a message once that he loves it because it shows the world the culture of his community. What a nice thought.”
