Disposable people

DISPOSABLE PEOPLE
Contemporary Global Slavery
A Hayward Touring exhibition in collaboration with Autograph ABP and Magnum Photos
Tour begins at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre
27 September – 9 November 2008

Slavery in the contemporary world is what it has been since the beginning of human history – the complete control of one person by another. Violence is at the heart of that control, and the aim is profit. Kevin Bales, President of Free the Slaves

Today, over 200 years after the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, an estimated 27 million people worldwide are still locked into slavery and servitude across the globe. This major new photography exhibition, organised by Hayward Touring in collaboration with the photographic agencies Autograph ABP and Magnum Photos will take an in-depth look at the prevalence of slavery and injustice in the 21st century through the lenses of eight internationally acclaimed documentary photographers. The exhibition begins at the Royal Festival, Southbank Centre and will be toured to venues across the UK.

These eight projects, commissioned by Autograph ABP, are by members of Magnum, the world’s leading photographic agency. All the participating photographers have a strong interest in human rights and a record for world-class photo-journalism. In the ‘heroic’ era of photo-journalism, roughly from the Spanish Civil War until the late 1960s, it seemed that a single image could define the greatest human dramas and catastrophes. In our age of digital image manipulation, camera phones and 24-hour news media, the exhibition will examine the power of the documentary photograph to record and illuminate human existence.

The photographers and subject matters are:
Abbas – documenting child labour in Bangladesh
Ian Berry – examines the effects of international trade rules on farmers in Ghana
Stuart Franklin – exploring chattel slavery in Sudan
Jim Goldberg – documenting the trafficking of young people from Eastern Europe
Susan Meiselas – investigating the conditions of Indonesian women working in Singapore as domestic servants
Paolo Pellegrin – documenting Haitian ‘Restaveks’ (child slaves)
Chris Steele-Perkins – documenting South Korean women who were held as sex slaves by the Japanese in World War II and are still seeking restitution
Alex Webb – photographing Haitian cane workers held in organised bonded labour in the Dominican Republic

The exhibition has been conceived and curated by Mark Sealy, Director of Autograph ABP, the international non-profit making photographic agency. Featuring over 100 photographs in a wide range of formats the exhibition will include commentaries by the photographers and contextual material produced in consultation with Professor Kevin Bales, President of the US-based organization, Free the Slaves, and a world expert on modern slavery.

Mark Sealy, Director, Autograph ABP, says:
“I wanted to address the here and now, to draw attention to the fact that human trafficking for commercial gain is still a global problem and that today, as in the past, global economic market forces are the major contributing factor in making human life disposable.”

Roger Malbert, Head of Hayward Touring, says:
“The outstanding quality of this work reaffirms the value and importance of documentary photography as a source of insight into the lives of people who are essentially voiceless and ignored. Hayward Touring, with the collaboration of Autograph ABP and Magnum, provides the opportunity for a wide public across the UK to engage with, and debate, the issues raised by the exhibition.”

Disposable People: Contemporary Global Slavery is supported by Arts Council England, MTV Europe Foundation, Christian Aid and Concern Worldwide.

Catalogue
A full illustrated catalogue ‘Documenting Disposable People’ will be published to coincide with the exhibition, featuring reproductions of all the photographs in the exhibition, alongside detailed personal testimonies and texts by the photographers and Kevin Bales.

Disposable People: Contemporary Global Slavery
A Hayward Touring exhibition in collaboration with Autograph ABP and Magnum Photos
The Clore Ballroom, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre
Opening times: 10am – 11pm daily
Admission free
www.southbankcentre.co.uk/visual-arts

Tour venues
26 September - 9 November 2008 The Clore Ballroom, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre
10 January - 21 February 2009 The Gallery, Peninsula Arts, University of Plymouth
28 February - 9 April 2009 University of Northumbria, Newcastle
23 May - 5 July 2009 2009 Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Carlisle
1 August – 13 September 2009 New Art Exchange, Nottingham
7 Nov 2009 - 9 Jan 2010 Aberystwyth Arts Centre