Photo Essay —
pulped in time
DYUTIMAN MUKHOPADHYAY PHOTOGRAPHY
‘pulp’ (verb).
crush into a soft, wet, shapeless mass.
— Oxford Languages (https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/).
— Sculptures with pulped adhesive tape peeled from paper canvas stuck on the wall.
‘The Grieving Mother—The Square of Sorrow’
A memorial complex on the Mamayev Hill in Russia commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad (1942-1943). It was the most brutal and intense battle of World War II—perhaps even of all recorded history—with both sides enduring massive losses amid relentless combat in and around the city. Reference/Source: https://mamaev-hill.ru/en/memorial-elements/grief
‘The Dead at Buchenwald on Ettersberg Hill Near Weimar, Germany, Showing Bodies being Piled High Outside the Camp's Incinerator Plant’
Inspired by a 1945 Photograph by Margaret Bourke-White. The estimated number of Jews killed during the Holocaust is approximately 6 million. The genocide occurred between 1941 and 1945. Victims died in concentration camps, mass shootings, ghettos, forced labour camps, and death marches. Reference/Source: https://schwarzaufweiss.buchenwald.de/en/The-Camp-as-Evidence.html#showcase_1279
Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images, Munich
‘Death Carrying Corpses after Heavy Shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine (2022)’
According to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), since 24 February 2022, a confirmed minimum of 12,654 Ukrainian civilians—among them 673 children—have lost their lives, while 29,392 individuals, including 1,865 children, have sustained injuries. This estimate does not account for unreported casualties. The conflict has triggered Europe's most severe displacement crisis since World War II, with more than 10 million Ukrainians forced from their homes—3.6 million internally displaced and 6.9 million having sought refuge in other countries. Reference/Source: https://press.un.org/en/2025/sc16006.doc.htm
‘Sister Shields Little Brother from the Rubble during the 22-Hour Wait for Help after the 2023 Earthquake in Northern Syria’
In the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes that struck Syria’s Idlib province, five-year-old Jinan and her nine-month-old brother Abdullah were miraculously rescued from the rubble of their collapsed home in Harem, where they had been trapped for nearly 22 hours. As she lay pressed closely beside her younger sibling, possibly within the remnants of their bed, she tenderly stroked his hair. Despite being trapped, she was able to move her arm just enough to shield his face from the dust swirling through the debris. She was pinned beneath a concrete slab and had an iron rod impaled through her leg. Besides the children, beneath the wreckage of their home, lay the body of their mother, Suaad. Only her arm was visible at first as if she had tried to shield her children in a final, desperate, protective embrace. Jinan and her brother were among countless children orphaned by the earthquake in Idlib. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SNHR-a UK-based human rights organisation) has stated that there were at least 231,495 civilian deaths in the Syrian civil war from March 2011 up until June 2024. This is a minimum verifiable number. References/Sources: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/14/get-me-out-of-here-survival-of-syrian-siblings-filmed-trapped-in-rubble
https://snhr.org/blog/2024/08/30/civilian-death-toll
— March 18, 2023; Bengaluru, India;
— Photographed in Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro.
— Artwork and Photography: Dyutiman Mukhopadhyay.