The Human Connection: Photographs & Stories from Bangladesh & Nepal

Rocky Mountain Books, 2014. — 204 p.Portrait and documentary photographer Jeremy Fokkens takes the reader on an international journey, sharing captivating stories and photographs of the people who call Nepal and Bangladesh home.Motivated simply by his excessive curiosity for the less travelled and remote environments, Fokkens began this project with one change of clothes, a bagful of photography equipment and a commitment to photograph eight consecutive months that started in 2011. Fokkenss images capture intimate moments of his subjects in their daily lives, depicting human resilience and survival and finding beauty in the unknown. His photographs include portrayals of Nepal and Bangladesh workers, the resilience of children and the simplicity of portraiture. Fokkens exemplifies a strong moral conviction that building trust and spending time with his subjects is of the utmost importance when taking pictures of strangers. His work uses sharp, stimulating imagery where texture, depth, natural light and the unfamiliarity of places and spaces expose a surprising world in hopes of transforming the viewers perspective, if only for a second, to a place where the treatment of life might otherwise be misplaced or taken for granted.