Human rights human wrongs

Interesting exhibition at the Photographer’s Gallery looking at photojournalistic practice and its impact on human rights using work from the Black Star Collection.

The show took the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a starting point and was displayed chronologically. In particular it looks at struggles against racism and colonialism. I found the show good as a history of these struggles but I think it was trying to say something bigger from reading the leaflet which I didn’t get from just looking. It said that the show also gave an insight into the production process and choosing of images but this was not signposted. It might have been helpful to know more about which image from a group was chosen to be published and where it was used.

I liked the fact they had large sets of images such as over 60 of a jail break on Achieta Island however I would have liked more explanation of the events. Also I liked the fact the inscriptions on the back of the pictures were recorded but I had no idea who wrote them, the photographer or the archivist.

There were some really powerful and disturbing images in this show and it was well worth seeing but it could have been so much better if it had been clearer about its narrative was it a history of late 20th century conflict or a history of photojournalism.

Review
Evening Standard

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