Claudio Cambon

August 2, 2001 - September 1, 2001

Claudio Cambon’s fascinating black and white images tell the story of the shipbreaking and recycling of an American flagged merchant ship in Bangladesh. When the American-flag oil tanker SS Minole beached on the shores of Fahed Steel Industries in Chittagong, Bangladesh in January 1998, it signalled both an ending and a beginning. For the American sailors who ran the ship aground, this meant the close of a long, productive life spent wandering the world’s oceans. For the Bangladeshi shipbreakers who over the course of the next five months dismantled the vessel more or less by hand, it signified instead a point of commencement, as the ship provided many materials necessary in this country’s struggle to create a modern existence for itself.