WPPh --> ENTER (World Press Photo)

August 2009 | Edition Twelve

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Dozens of cooks cope with the demands of some twelve thousand displaced people - a gargantuan and often thankless job. Starting as early as 3am and ending their duties fourteen hours later. Every day, they cook at least five tonnes of rice, bake more than eight thousand pieces of naan bread and make thousands of cups of tea - using traditional pots and firewood - in an open-air kitchen in the sweltering summer heat.

“I thought that focusing on the soot-stained hands and clothes spoke much more about the intensity of their work than anything else,” says Edwin. “The faceless portraits emphasized the point that the job was tough but thankless.”