Tom Stoddart iWitness Exhibition, December 3rd 2004 - January 30th 2005
The photographs in this section are from the expressive iWITNESS exhibition by photojournalist Tom Stoddart. The exhibition displayed more than 70 black and white photographs taken over 10 years. The exhibition is a witness to some of the most intense humanitarian disasters the world has seen. The photographs depicts some of the most tragic consequences of the famine in Sudan, the siege of Sarajevo, ‘exodus’- the situation of refugees from Rwanda, ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, the floods in Mozambique, the earthquake in Gujurat, north-western India of 2001, 911, the Royal Marines in Iraq and the ‘Scourge’ of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa.
Some of the images are uncompromising and uncomfortable viewing, yet are a testimony of the courage and survival of the individual within the story. Stoddart in his introduction to the exhibition (see www.tomstoddart.com/iwitness.html ), states:
“The people portrayed in the photographs are heroes: innocent people trapped and battered by circumstances beyond their control.”
“Most of the events chronicled here can be attributed directly to mankind’s greed, intolerance, prejudice, inhumanity, lust for political power, and sheer stupidity… Don’t feel sorry when you look at these pictures – feel angry that we need to be reminded of such folly. It is sad but necessary that these photographs exist.”
Note: From December 3rd 2004 to January 30th 2005, the iWITNESS exhibition was brought to Ireland in association with Concern Worldwide.
