Between 21 January and 11 April Whitechapel Gallery in London is hosting the photographic exhibition ‘Where Three Dreams Cross‘. The exhibition present photographs documenting the three countries from 1860 to the present day, with 300 works by 70 photographers and artists.
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In 2008 Nepa Laya and Kunda Dixit (of Himal Media) published a photo book, ‘A People War‘, on the internal conflict in Nepal (1996-2006). The book took a people centric focus, rather than a military one, looking at how they were impacted by the ten year Maoist led ‘Peoples War’. I interviewed Kunda Dixit on the project earlier this year to learn how the project had come about.
The photos were taken on a successful national exhibition tour resulting in a second book, ‘Never Again‘, consisting of just some of the hundreds of messages left in the exhibiti0n visitor books. At the same time a documentary film was released called ‘Frames of War‘ by Prem BK and Kesand Tseten based on the ‘A People War’ book.
This week sees the publication of the third and final book in the series, ‘People After War‘. Through painstaking research and help from journalists and the public the publishers tracked down 50 of the individuals who featured in the original book to find out what had happened to them in the intervening years.
I managed to get hold of a copy of the book yesterday and can highly recommended it. The original photos are placed with new photos of the people they managed to find and are accompanied by an update on their lives. There are some fascinating stories, both inspiring and tragic.
The books and touring exhibitions have had a powerful resonance with those who have seen them. The projects evolving aim is one of promoting non-violence and historical documentation, and appears to have worked very well on the level of awareness raising and sharing of common experience. What the project could or should achieve beyond this poses an interesting question. The photos raise questions, emotions and awareness – there is cause for reflection on what happened on a national, local and individual level. But how this inputs into the current political impasse and continuing violence in the country is difficult to assess. ‘Never Again’ may be a cry reflected across communities nation wide but the political reality cannot be ignored – peace remains fragile, justice distant, and reconciliation difficult without both of these. Despite the mass public support for peace in 2006 the movement has failed to sustain itself as a unified presence, dividing along political lines. This comes as no surprise, after all when there is a common enemy we can easily forget our differences. But as King Gyanendra reliquished power those who found it convinient to join forces divided back into their various factions. So, there may be a common call for ‘Never Again’ but there is little unity on how to resolve why it happened in the first place.
We should not expect too much of photographs, though we often do. It would be nice to think that this project could do more to sustain peace if integrated into a national campaign to put pressure on politicians. But without such a campaign this remains a project appreciated by the people but ignored by those who can ensure a peaceful future for those in Nepal. If there is a criticism of the book it is not on the photographic level, but in regards to how it fails to address the difficult question about the legimate use of violence against the state, and that ‘getting on with development’ ignores the fundamental imbalance of power relations within the country.
The photos are currently on tour in Nepal and will be on permenant exhibition at Madan Puraskar’s library at Patan Dhoka, Kathmandu.
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It is a well known fact that innocent people are convicted of crimes they did not commit. This flaw in all criminal justice systems is one of the most compelling arguments for the abolition of the death penalty. Although there are examples of such miscarriages of justice around the world the USA tends to present some of the most compelling. As 10 October marked World Day Against the Death Penalty I was interested to see this short talk by photographer Taryn Simon on her 2005 work ‘The Innocents‘.
The first half of the talk focusses on Simon’s latest work entitled ‘An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar’ which is worth watching in itself. ‘The Innocents’ that follows is a series of photographs of men convicted of violent crimes they did not commit, many receiving a death sentence. The photos locate the men either at the scene of the crime, the location of their alibi, or the place of their arrest.
Not only does the series highlight the frailty of our memories and the problems with witness identification, but also the challenges of the policy using photography in their work to identify criminals.
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Short animation by director of ‘Waltz with Bashir’, Yoni Goodman, on continued Israeli control over the Gaza strip.
more about "New Short Film from the Animation Dir…", posted with vodpod
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Launched in 2007, Good 50×70 is an independent, non-profit initiative aiming to ‘promote the value of social communication in the creative community, provide charities with a (free) database of communication tools, and inspire the public via graphic design.’
Good 50×70’s work revolves around an annual contest to design posters confronting seven of the critical issues affecting today’s world. Seven charities each provide a brief on a global issue. Anyone who wishes can enter a poster on any topic that inspires them. The best 30 responses to each brief are collected in a catalogue and exhibited around the world. All the posters entered are supplied to the charities for them to use as potential communication tools.
more about "Good 50×70", posted with vodpod
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The UN has been present in Nepal for many years, with the recent addition of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in 2005. There are a total of 22 UN agencies present in or doing some work on Nepal. There are several pieces of work that are worth a brief look.
The recent exhibition ‘Real People Real Needs‘ by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on refugees (with particular focus on the Bhutanese refugees).
Real People Real Needs exhibition, Kathmandu (copyright Robert Godden)
The exhibition was excellent, bringing together photos of refugees from across the Asia region (including the Swat Valley in Pakistan, Tibetans in Nepal, Afghanis in Pakistan, and Bhutanese in New York). It used the vast warehouse space well, with some images blown up to huge dimensions (10 by 15 foot), and included dance performances, audio testimony and good information displays. Much of the credit for the exhibiton goes to Photo.Circle, a Nepalese cooperative of photographers who put on the exhibiton at very short notice. Whether the exhibition had a good strategic base is questionable. After all, if UNHCR had wanted to inform the Nepalese public about the Bhutanese refugees it has left it a bit late as many are now relocating to other countries. Maybe a more timely information campaign could have mobilised public support and built more pressure for the return of the refugees to Bhutan? However, the event received a fair amount of media attention and around 7,000 people attended. The exhibition was then relocated to a small park in central Kathmandu to give the opportunity for more people to see it. UNHCR has been using video to inform the Bhutanese refugees about the countries they may relocate to, as well as working with journalists from those countries to inform the local populations about the Bhutanese refugees. This marries with other interesting visual media initiatives by UNHCR, like the TV soap opera they made in Japan, and they stand out as one of the better UN agencies in regard to the use of visual media.
Another piece of work is the Prison Condition exhibition and photo essay produced by OHCHR. The exhibition went on tour and was aimed at informing people about the living conditions in Nepalese prisons. Again, strategically questionable, after all how were the visitors to the exhibition meant to react? Were they to be mobilised to advocate for prison reform? The conditions people live in is far from great but given that the living conditions of many in Nepal is equally poor it is hard to see how a photo exhibition will generate much sympathy? Some would question why OHCHR was doing this piece of work in the first place, after all there are rather more pressing issues (such as torture in police custody) and some would suggest that they wanted to be publicly seen to be tackling less political issues. So, maybe there was a strategy at work after all? Anyway, the exhibiton certainly provided an insight that many would be unlikely to have otherwise. Check out the OHCHR-Nepal site for a downloadable brochure of the photos.
A rather bad example of the use of photos is the OHCHR-Nepal summary repot on ‘disappearances‘ in Bardiya. This glossy version of the original report is illustrated with a series of small images. However, they are captionless. When I asked a member of staff about this I was told this was for security reasons. I can’t say I buy this as it is perfectly possible to include captions and hide identities, but also how is someone’s security enhanced by you slapping a uncensored image of them in a report? Poor work guys.
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The human rights violation of ‘disappearances’ has attracted a great deal of photographic interest and work. To mark the International Day of the Disappeared (30 August) here is a small selection of photographic work on the issue.
Marcelo Brodsky’s ‘Buena Memoria‘ – on returning to Argentina Brodsky organised a 25th anniversary reunion of his class mates at Colegion Nacional de Buenous Aires. Based around a massive blow-up of an original class photo he went about making portraits of the class. With so many disappeared he looked to represent them as a memorial to what had happened.
Paula Allen’s ‘The Women of Calama‘ – a long term project working looking at the search for those ‘disappeared’ during the Pinochet regime.
Brent Foster’s ‘Kashmir’s Half Widows’ – Foster’s work looks at the estimated 2000-6000 women left behind after their husbands were ‘disappeared’ in the disputed territory of Kashmir.
Susan Meiselas ‘Disappeared Women of Juarez‘
‘Documenting Disappearances – Algeria, state terrorism and the photographic image‘ – featuring Omar D’s book (commissioned and edited by Autograph ABP) of photographs, ‘Devoir de memoire / a Biography of Disappearance, Algeria 1992-’. Also featured on Flickr.
International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances ‘Existence Denied‘ – photo book produced for the 25th anniversary of the International Day of the Disappeared.
ICRC’s ‘Missing Persons in Nepal‘ – photos by K. Kayastha commissioned by the International Committee of the Red Cross documenting the impact of losing a family member to ‘disappearances’.
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Posted by buddhasbreakfast
The Berkeley Human Rights Center recently organised a conference on human rights and new technology called ‘The Soul of the New Machine‘.
Discussions included ‘Spotlighting Human Rights: Digital Photography and Video‘
Plus ‘Animating Human Rights: Games, Animations and Multi-media‘
They have also set up a social networking site on Ning for those who wish to follow-up on the issues discussed.
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Michael Hoffman, CEO of C3 Communications, comments on Viral Video on Beth Kanter’s blog.
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The on-going political protests in Iran following the election have generated a great deal of interest, especially in regard to the use of Twitter and other social networking sites. These have been not only used as tools to organize opposition demonstrations and share info, but also to share images of previous protests. The authorities are making attempts to limit these communication mechanisms to quell dissent, but the multitude of devises you can Tweet from, not to mention other sites and mobile devises makes this difficult. See Rights Exposure recent Tweets for two stories (one in the NYT and the other in the UK Telegraph) for more info.
Also of interest is an article posted today on No Caption Needed – ‘Showing Political Action: Images in the Iranian Protests’ – that shows how images of the protests are being used at subsequent protests. Refreshingly, the article looks at what people do with images rather than an academic analysis of what ‘truth’ is shown, representation and power relationships between photographer and subject.
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