During the conflict in Nepal (1996-2006) many people were subjected to enforced disappearances by state security forces or abductions and unlawful killings by members of the Communist Party of Nepal – Maoist (CPN-M). When the peace process began both sides committed to addressing these past abuses. There was much expectation that those responsible for these crimes would be held to account. However, years on, not one person has been tried in a civilian court, nor has the promised Disappearance Commission of Inquiry been established. The powerful remain above the law and those who lost loved ones still do not know their relatives fate nor where their remains are buried?
Working with Purnimaya Lama, whose husband was abducted and killed by the Maosits, and a local photographer, Nayan Tara Gurung Kakshapati, and producer, Kari Collins, we set to produce a multi-media piece that clearly showed the painful limbo that so many relatives continue to live in.
Every few months, Purnimaya visits the family home in Dapcha that is now locked up as she lives in Kathmandu with her children. Purnimaya’s campaign for truth and justice has been met by threats by Maoist party cadres. Purnimaya says she would like to return to live in the village some day.
It was important that Purnimaya was able to tell her story, in her own voice, not so much of what happened but more of how her life is now. For there are those who want to move on, who think dragging up the past and holding people to account for their actions endangers the peace process. But what about the peace for those who lost their loved ones?
Amnesty International’s aim is to use the piece to motivate and drive people to an on-line action aimed at the police, calling on them to stop blocking investigations. In addition, photos shot with Purnimaya are being used in several local media outlets around the International Day of the Disappeared (30 August), and some public events.
We encourage you to take action and spread the video across your networks.
As this is the first of what could be a series of pieces we would very much like to hear your comments and suggestions.
MediaStorm is up there with the best in multimedia so you would expect their revamped website to deliver. And it does. The relaunch includes a new piece by Luca Oleniuk on global warming entitled ‘Airsick‘ made with 20,000 photos in Toronto, Canada.
It is rather unrelenting (though that might be more to do with it taking over 30 mins to buffer on my snail paced internet connection). Not sure what we are supposed to do after watching it…cry on our cars (or kiss my bike)? There is a list of suggested behavioural changes we can all make at the bottom of the page which all sound OK, though given the drama of the piece they seem rather dwarfed by the problem. Anyway, I now feel terribly guilty about the number of work flights I have to make in the next month which is an outcome I guess?
For the first time, the London International Documentary Festival will include this year (26 April-8 May) documentary photography in its program. Together with two 5-day intensive Documentary Photography workshops organized in collaboration with Magnum Photos, the Festival is organizing two photography exhibitions and a talk on new approaches to humanitarian visual communication in association with WaterAid
The two Documentary Photography workshops will be lead by internationally Magnum photographers Donovan Wylie and Olivia Arthur. Donovan’s workshop will concentrate on documenting urban spaces and their populations. Olivia’s women-only workshop “will give ten female photographers the chance to develop their individual visual language and really boost their portfolio in this heavily male dominated industry”.
As part of the festival, the photographer Toby Smith is exhibiting 44 photographs at the Barbican Mezzanine. Toby Smith has carried out a project to document illegal deforestation in Madagascar. He first identified the logging areas before documenting the activity deep within UNESCO protected rainforests. The project has now been published in GEO magazine (Germany) after being embargoed as evidence in international courts. Admission is free. You can see the full Madagascar series by T. Smith here.
Salt Water Tears, the second exhibition at the LIDF, presents the work of photographer Munem Wasif which shows the Satkhira region of south-east Bangladesh. As a result of climate change and unplanned shrimp farming this region experiences erratic rainfall and a steady increase in the salinity of the water table, making safe water increasingly scarce. Changes in the environment now mean that villagers are forced to venture deeper into the Sunderbans forest to make their living and search for water, resulting in an increase in people killed by Bengal tigers. These images were made for international NGO WaterAid and they are exhibited at the Free World Centre. Admission is free.
The festival will organize on the 26th April a talk, Developing the photographic: new approaches to humanitarian visual communication, which “will outline new approaches to communicating humanitarian issues using photography”. The speakers, Abbye Trailer-Smith (photographer), Emma Boyd (co-ordinator at Autograph ABP) and Jessica Crombie (picture- editor at Water Aid) “will outline three models that photographers and artists are using to communicate issues”.
Abbye will be showing her work ‘Still Human, Still Here’, made in collaboration with Amnesty International. With this multimedia piece Abbye “has used still imagery and testimony to create an extremely effective piece of communication for use by the NGO across different medias”.
Emma “will look at how visual artists are working with photography to make issue based artworks for gallery spaces”. Some of the artists Emma will be looking at include Alfredo Jaar, Omer Fast, and Marcelo Brodski. Jessica will be showing the work of Ursula Biermann and “will be discussing how NGOs can work with artists to create tools for more in-depth communication with supporters”. Admission is free but booking is required: bookings@freewordonline.com. Free World Centre, Monday 26th April 2010, 18:30 pm
Interesting interview with Brian Storm of Media Storm featured on Nieman Reports. Here is a paragraph that James Nachtwey probably should have read before doing his TB shoot.
“The biggest difference is slowing down and spending more time with the subject. It’s not just taking their picture; it’s giving them a voice. To do that, it’s not just using an audio recorder or a video camera to do interviews. It’s asking questions which allow the subject to give context to the story—to provide the rest of the information needed to truly understand the power of those moments. I’m not suggesting at all that we stop taking still pictures; they are an incredibly powerful way to communicate. But photographs require context to tell a more complete narrative. The best thing for photojournalists to do is to slow down, become a little more engaged, and spend a little more time on their projects in a much more intimate way.”
In a similar vein to the ‘Disposable People’ project comes ‘Access to Life‘. Once again we see Magnum Photos partnered with an NGO – this time The Global Fund – presenting the work of eight photographers. The subject is how anti-retroviral treatment transforms the lives of those with AIDS.
The photographers document the lives of 30 people in nine countries before and four months after starting anti-retroviral treatment.
The stand out piece for me is Jim Goldberg’s work in India (he was also involved in the ‘Disposable People’ project). Bringing his scrap book style – using family photos and snap shot imagery, messages written by the subjects on prints and home movie-like video – he must be one of the most inclusive of the Magnum Photographers here. Each individual speaks in their own voice (as do their families), telling us their hopes and fears, trials and regrets.
If I was to quibble it would be that there are no obvious avenues for those viewing the stories on-line to take action or support the cause in any way (as there wasn’t at the ‘Disposable People’ project exhibition in London). There is a links page but I can’t help but feel this is an opportunity lost. Though maybe that wasn’t their intention (for us to support The Global Fund) – maybe they just wanted to let us know what was going on? It is only by clicking on ‘MyGlobalFund‘ in the top right hand corner that you get to a site where you can get involved.
Having said that, as ‘major projects’ go this is a good one.
If you want to know more about Magnum Photos or The Global Fund click on their logos below.
These look tastier than cheese on toast with HP Sauce! The Magnum Foundation and the Department of Photography & Imaging at New York University’s Tisch School of Arts are offering four courses in photography and human rights. Not sure how much it costs though? But some lucky pups are going to have a great summer in Greenwich Village!
The courses, taking place in the evenings are;
MAY 17 – JUNE 4:
THE PICTURE ESSAY FOR PAPER AND PIXEL – Fred Ritchin
DIGITAL TOOLS FOR DOCUMENTARY PRACTICE –Cate Fallon
JUNE 7 – JUNE 25:
HUMAN RIGHTS AND PHOTOGRAPHY – Peter Lucas
THE PHOTO ESSAY –Susan Meiselas
Peter Lucas’ course examining the role of photography in the human rights movement and its impact on social change looks right up Rights Exposure’s street.
I was at the British Embassy in Kathmandu a couple of weeks back to attend a gathering on enforced disappearances. The event marked the 6th anniversary of the killing a 15-year-old girl, Maina Sunuwar, in 2004 by the Nepal Army. The main draw was the première of a short film entitled, ‘Awaiting Justice‘ (presented as ‘Nyay Kahile?’ in Nepali, which literally translates as ‘Justice When?’). The film documents a visit in December 2009 by nine top diplomats to Bardiya District where a high number of people were ‘disappeared’ during Nepal’s decade long conflict (1996-2006).
I was looking forward to seeing the film, but the title had already begun to raise questions in my mind. I tend not to be a pedant when it comes to language, but I have seen such passive terminology far too often when referring to rights holders in Nepal. ‘Waiting’ is a term that is unfortunately reflected in the way many of the individuals are represented, not least by the human rights movement.
Since the end of the conflict there has been a concerted push by human rights organisations, both national and international, as well as some embassies and the UN (particularly OHCHR – Nepal), for investigations and prosecutions into past abuses. This has mainly focussed on case documentation and political lobbying via legal argumentation. Despite this there are those of the opinion that survivors and the families of those ‘disappeared’ or unlawfully killed have been, up until recently, marginal voices in this campaign, with their priorities given less prominence in the face of the more powerful international ‘human rights project‘. Some would even say that the families agenda has been deliberately distorted to fit that of the international community. A cynical analysis would be that this agenda centres on furthering international human rights law through work in politically weak and conflict damaged countries, with an emphasis on ‘putting people in prison‘ rather than delivering to the wishes of those who suffered most (which tends to centre on material and emotional relief). Not that justice isn’t a good thing, it just raises the question of who all this effort is actually for? If in reality things are far more complex than the cynics may have you believe, this is not to say there is not an element of truth here. There are certainly legitimate questions to be asked about the independence of some CBOs in Nepal, and whether undue influence is exerted on them to be ‘on message’ with the bigger agencies controlling the agenda and funding. What interests me most though is how this plays out strategically and representationally?
Few resources and time appear to have gone into growing the public profile of the CBOs and winning arguments amongst the public to mobilise support. The ‘legal-first’ strategy that is pushed so hard by the various human rights agencies is making slow progress exactly because it is not duel tracked with a wider communication strategy that seeks to garner support beyond a narrow constituency of human rights activists and lawyers. Documentation of cases and legal arguments saturate the landscape, with a war of words occupying what small amount of media space is given over to these issues. Almost forgotten are the lives of those who live on. When we do hear from them it is usually to recount, once again, the painful episode that took their loved ones away from them (‘the case’).
The embassy film thus takes a now predictable format – a parade of ‘cases’, narrowly defining the individuals in the context of the abuse rather than as complex and dynamic people. This is particularly evident in the main segment of the film where the diplomats are petitioned by a group of people who lost relatives or were themselves tortured. The decision to include so much of the meeting is questionable as it fails to engage after a short time. Not that the testimonies are boring or unmoving. What they are is contextually adrift in a barren meeting hall, where embassy staff sit silently as if holding court before their 4×4 convoy returns them to Kathmandu. There is no attempt to break down the empathic gap between the audience and people featured. More surprisingly, there is almost no explanation about why the diplomats made the trip to Bardiya, possibly underlining the exclusive nature of the product (i.e. it is for those who know rather than to info those who don’t). I am also unable to tell you what the film is for or how it will be used.
This is not a criticism of the international community in Nepal, they do good work – and this initiative may turn out to be well placed. The criticism is this – firstly, if you are to spend time and money on visual media then a lot more thought is needed than appears to have gone into this production, that even at 10mins failed to engage me or generate empathy due to its narrow passive ‘victimisation’ of those it represents. The second criticism, and the more important as it goes beyond one short film, is why such representations persist (when there are obvious alternatives) and whether they expose a dynamic between the rights holders and those agencies who take a ‘for the community’ rather than a ‘with the community‘ strategy?
It is strange that despite the involvement of the self organised community based organisation – Conflict Victims Committee – there is no representation in the film of the substantial work they have done in campaigning for justice. In fact I have not come across one substantial piece of visual media that looks at these CBOs in Nepal (though that doesn’t mean such work isn’t out there).
Of course, it is unrealistic to expect embassies to be masters of visual communications, and the fact that they even thought about filming their initiative (which was mainly symbolic – the abuses are already well documented) is positive. But such agents need to realise that winning the legal arguments is only half the battle. Failure to generate a ground swell of public solidarity with those who fight for justice and reparations will at the very least hamper progress, at worst make you irrelevant.
A more thoughtful approach is taken in the 2009 International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) film, unfortunately with an equally passive sounding title, ‘The Wait Continues‘. The film narrows its focus on one incident where 17 workers from Jogimara were reported killed whilst working at an airport construction site in Kalikot.
The film is a more considered affair than ‘Awaiting Justice’, where the audience is firmly placed in the context of the 15 families who lost their sons. They are interviewed in their village and homes. We see them going about their daily lives. Yet it is what the family members recount that is most notable. Rather than presenting details of ‘the case’ (we learn only the basic facts of what happened) they tell us about their hopes and fears, their doubts and ways of coping. A particular poignant moment is when one man relates how his neighbour has moved away to escape the memories of his son. But asks, ‘What will he do with his son’s plate, and the glass he drunk from?’ immediately summoning a human universal of the memories evoked in us by objects used by the ones we love.
Towards the end of the film ICRC reps walk into the village. This is probably the most awkward moment throughout and draws attention to the fact the focus is on a community that has found it difficult to represent itself effectively (though it does note that others have). It is an all too familiar image – the human rights /UN worker who comes to the village to ‘extract’ research information, maybe never to return, leaving the interviewees disheartened and suspicious of their intentions. This cannot be a direct criticism of the film itself, which is well made, or ICRC for that matter, but does highlight the lack of visual media that presents the pro-active, self organisation of many families across the country to fight (rather than ‘wait’) for reparations, truth and justice. The ICRC documentary is complimented by a set of decent stills by K.Kayastha that begin to scratch a surface that could do with a bit more scratching.
Raj Kumari Gurung lost both her brothers-in-law. Their mother, Moti Maya Gurung is convinced one day they will return. Copyright ICRC / K.Kayastha
The ‘legal-first’ singular track has produced a stack of reports. Much could have been done to wed these with a visual advocacy strategy – much in the way OSI has done in recent times. A couple of reports illustrate a lost opportunities. The ‘waiting‘ continues in two reports by the Nepalese human rights organisation Advocacy Forum (AF) and US based NGO, Human Rights Watch (HRW). AF is an excellent organisation, and I have worked with them in the past. However, a strategic shift in the representation of survivors and rights holders would be a positive step.
Two reports – ‘Waiting for Justice‘ and ‘Still Waiting for Justice‘ – present excellent documentation on over 60 cases of ‘unpunished crimes from Nepal’s Armed Conflict‘. In many instances AF has fought hard for these cases to be investigated by the police, despite obstruction. However, once more we enter the territory of passive victims, illustrated in the first report by the widely used (and rather tired in my opinion) photographic technique of representing ‘disappearances’ by having family members hold up photos of those that are missing (in the second report photos are abandoned except for the cover, which incidentally is one of mine – where at least we see the family members out on the streets protesting).
What surprises more is that HRW did not do more to improve the visual representation. Over the last couple of years to their credit they have done much to adopt more visual tools in their work, particularly on their website.
Other examples are the reports by OHCHR-Nepal on abuses in the Maharajgung army barracks and in Bardiya district. The Maharajgung report does not feature any photos at all. A glossy summary version of the Bardiya report (the original version having almost sunk without trace on it launch) contains eight un-captioned colour photos – with none of the photos being self explanatory enough to stand alone. This disappoints all the more because UN agencies, including OHCHR themselves with their work on prison conditions in Nepal, have grasped the value of visual media in providing context and building understanding in the wider population. I covered this here.
It is obvious from such laudable initiatives, such as A People’s War trilogy, that with some effort and thought a more diverse and nuanced representation can be produced. The thing the project did best was invest in a time scale that allowed the people pictured to become rounded individuals to the viewer. Through the follow-up book, and last in the trilogy, ‘People After War‘, we are able to travel along a narrative that leads the reader away from a black and white reading of events and people. The exhibition that travelled across the country drew huge crowds (allegedly 350,000), with some of their thoughts recorded in the second book in the trilogy, ‘Never Again‘. Six thousand copies of ‘A People War‘ were distributed to schools and libraries for free. So, why did one publisher decide it was necessary to have such a public debate on these issues, but not one human rights agency has come close to producing an initiative that stimulates such a public interaction?
Obviously, an argument can be made that all these representations differ due to the agents responsible for them, their objectives , expertise and the time available to produce them. This is a fair point – as it is fair to say that factually people are ‘waiting’ due to the state being the agent to deliver some of the things they want. But what ever your appraisal of these different approaches it is hard to deny that what is lacking is a substantial participatory communication approach that puts the power of representation in the hands of the families and survivors (at the very least this would enhance historic documentation). This may open up more space to discuss some of the issues of social exclusion that lead to the violations in the first place and remain un-resolved. A coherent communication strategy that looks to engage with a wider public audience in Nepal in order to increase pressure on political actors wouldn’t go a miss either.
These would not only go some way to addressing criticism that families lack control over how they are represented, and how their priorities are not accurately portrayed by the mainstream human rights community. It could also begin to break down societal barriers that currently block the establishment of a wider debate and recognition of the injustice that is being perpetuated. Whether participatory or not, a venture that focussed more on ‘campaigning‘ rather than ‘waiting‘ would be a good start.
Examples from other countries should inform those working in this sector in Nepal of what is possible. From a professional point of view the work of Paula Allen with the women of Calama in Chile stands out as a committed and long term approach. Marcelo Brodsky’s work ‘Buena Memoria‘ from Argentina provides an inclusive and personal documentation and memorial to those who were ‘disappeared’ from his school (watch the video for the event held to remember those who were killed). Omar D’s work on ‘disappearances’ in Algeria, ‘Devoir de memoire/A Biography of Disappearance, Algeria 1992-, commissioned and edited by Autograph ABP, is also worth noting. As is the discussed at an LSE conference on ‘disappearances’ in Algeria in 2008, raising the question;
‘How we can disseminate the truth about events that are officially denied or obfuscated by the legal system, how to lobby for the application of UN resolutions on forced disappearances and whether human rights organisations can overcome post-colonial and economic interests. Can imagery be more potent than text in bringing human rights issues into public knowledge? Can we talk of a politics of aesthetics in the context of subjects who have been stripped of their civil existence? How can the invisible be made visible?
To watch a video introduction to the LSE event click here.
Displaying the portraits of the disappeared in October Square in Minsk. From 'Existence Denied' by ICAED.
Also worth checking out is the ‘Existence Denied‘ book produced by the International Coalition of Enforced Disappearances (ICAED) that pulls together a series of stills from around the world that illustrate the emotional impact of those whose loved ones have been disappeared, as well as the activism they themselves have initiated to find out what happened and bring perpetrators to book.
'Angels on the march against disappearances in El Salvador. From 'Existence Denied' by ICAED.
Agencies can also explore the value of participatory photography as a tool for communication within and across communities, for understanding and reconciliation, but also for historical documentation. Not that such methodology is without its faults, but as I discussed in this post it lends itself to just this situation. A good example is the TAFOS (social photographic workshops) project in Peru which took place in the context of political violence, extreme poverty and lack of political representation – a situation similar to Nepal’s.
Much of the value of the project is encapsulated in this quote, which I will leave you with;
… “TAFOS was a project of visual inclusion, with pictures that, in its character of a documentary mirror, made visible the invisible and took risks for a country still alive. Their pictures show us a country struggling for respect and recognition of basic rights for its people; a country in the process of consolidation and transformation that, however, still enjoys life; summing up, a country with a clear bet for life and change”.
Huarcaya, Roberto. Hacer visible lo invisible. In: País de Luz. Talleres de Fotografía Social, TAFOS. Perú: 1986-1998. Lima-Peru: Pastor y Müller, 2006. p. 44-47 (English Translation).
In January, Kathmandu played host to a workshop with 24 young photographers from Bangladesh, Nepal and Norway. The students were in the capable hands of Philip Blenkinsop (well know for his photos of South East Asia, and particularly the Hmong) and Munem Wasif (critically acclaimed for his images of Old Dhaka).
To learn more about how the five days unfolded and the images that were produced visit the photo.circle site or watch the video below.
More from the excellent multi-media and documentary photography work of the Open Society Institute. Whether you are a fan of Soros or not, OSI has invested heavily in the production of high quality visual products that are integrated into social justice campaigns.
The ‘Moving Walls 16‘ exhibition brings together work by six photographers. There is no common theme linking the work, though most focus on war or its aftermath.
The two that stand out for me are the work by Tomas van Houtryve covering the end of the CPN (Maoist) led ‘People’s War’ and Jana Andolan II that over threw the monarchical dictatorship of King Gyanendra in 2006 (though his work on the conflict started in 2004). Although the set presented here is slightly disjointed it gives a good snap shot of the transition from conflict to uneasy peace. This work is part of a larger project ‘Comrade Revisited‘ documenting the world’s ‘last communist holdouts.’ It is worth checking out if only to see the full set of photos on Nepal.
The second stand out piece is by Paolo Woods entitled ‘Chinafrica‘ that looks at Chinese investment and economic migration to Africa. The images are stylised portraits that at times show an uneasy relationship between the Chinese migrants and the Africans they work with (or more accurately, work for them). Woods draws on European colonial imagery, though acknowledges that the Chinese presence in Africa is substantially different to that of the European colonialists.
Copyright Paolo Woods
The Moving Walls 16 exhibition takes place at the OSI in New York from September 29 2009 to 21 May 2010.
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.
