Tom Hatlestad, Norway
Freedom Track

The Freedom Track project is to conduct a photo documentary journey by road, driving alone from Norway to Dhaka, Bangladesh, in connection Chobi Mela V and its 2009 theme of Freedom.

The journey’s aim is to explore how the people I meet along the road from Norway to Bangladesh define the word Freedom, and the result of which will be presented as an exhibition during the festival in Dhaka.

My starting point is Norway and the Nordic Countries, then onward through Eastern Europe, former East Block Countries through Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal to Bangladesh.

The countries I will be traveling through all have a history of wars and occupations, and, I believe, that the people living in these countries will have different opinions and understandings of the word Freedom than most people from the west.

There intend to create a collection of the perceptions of the the word or term 'Freedom' through an exhibition that will be produced and finished on the road, and the idea is to have everything ready for presentation as I reach Dhaka.

The second part of the project will be when I return to Norway with an extended bulk of material after a journey home through a different corridor. This journey will be planned later.