Carleton University’s Rwanda Initiative and the Toronto-based social photography group PhotoSensitive unveiled the photo exhibit Living With at Toronto’s Brookfield Place before it will tour university campuses this fall.
The exhibit will be on display at Carleton Oct. 16-30 in the Galleria.
The exhibit was made possible by a generous grant from the Canadian International Development Agency.
PhotoSensitive, founded by former Toronto Star photographer Andrew Stawicki, is a collective of photographers determined to explore how photography can contribute to social justice. Veteran photojournalists volunteer their time to harness the power of the camera to achieve social goals.
Seven PhotoSensitive photographers spent nearly two weeks in Rwanda to photograph the individual stories behind Rwanda’s larger struggle with HIV/Aids. Their goal was to use the power of images to raise awareness on the issue of HIV while also improving journalism in Rwanda itself. Their visit was organized by the Rwanda Initiative, a partnership between Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication and its counterpart at the National University of Rwanda. In a novel twist for PhotoSensitive, the visiting photographers were partnered with local photojournalists and journalism students in a training exercise that resulted in the local photojournalists producing their own body of work.
“Aids in Africa” is something many Canadians care about. But too often people are left with a blur of facts and feel disconnected and powerless. PhotoSensitive’s documentary approach directly brings the viewer into the scene and this, combined with the context and contacts of local Rwandan journalists, allowed for more complicated and individual stories to be told and remembered.
In Rwanda, six local media outlets published two-page photo essays of the content produced by their photographers, working in tandem with the visitors from PhotoSensitive.
Rwanda has approximately 200,000 people living with HIV/AIDS now, according to the UN, in a country of less than nine million. The government of Rwanda is the first to use a World Trade Organization waiver to import generic drugs manufactured in other countries to combat HIV/AIDS and a Canadian company has recently been given permission to start production of anti-retrovirals for use in Rwanda. But sadly, because the regimens often require regular food, many people don’t benefit from the medicine because they cannot afford to eat.
The effects of the 1994 Genocide also linger in Rwanda. Sex was used as a weapon and many women were deliberately infected with HIV, in turn infecting their children. As a result the country has many orphans struggling to raise themselves.
In Rwanda, the Photosensitive photojournalists visited a number of projects to capture images to help to tell this story: They visited home visit and feeding programs, chronicled public education through plays and community meetings (for example with a group of young medical students who travel the country using a wooden penis to demonstrate how to use condoms) and met with people living with AIDS.
The Participants:
Andrew Stawicki, the founder of Photosensitive, began his photographic career in his native Poland. In 1982 he joined the staff of the Toronto Star. His photographs have appeared in books on Canada, Japan, the U.S, Spain and the Soviet Union. He is a gold medallist in the Society of Newspaper Design Awards and CAPIC Awards. Andrew was the National Newspaper Award winner in the Features category in 1993 and 1999. His 10-year photographic study on Mennonites was published in his book, A People Apart in 1995. Andrew has helped to create a unique and powerful ensemble of talented men and women who, through black-and-white photography, enrich, enlighten and educate Canadians on issues of social significance.
Tony Hauser , born in Beyrouth, Germany, has mounted 17 solo exhibitions in Canada in the past 20 years. A graduate of the School of Modern Photography in Montreal, he is known primarily as a portrait photographer. His work is in the collections of the National Archives and the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography in Ottawa, the Stratford-Festival, Toronto’s Gardiner Museum and those of many private citizens.
Peter Bregg , Photo Editor for HELLO! magazine, formerly with Maclean’s, began his career with Canadian Press in his native Ottawa. He covered the White House for Associated Press and later worked for the agency in London and New York. He worked in198485 on Prime Minister Brian Mulroney’s staff as official photographer. He has travelled on assignment to more than 65 countries and is the recipient of many national and international awards. He also taught photojournalism at the National University of Rwanda for the Rwanda Initiative for 2006.
Yuri Dojc, born in Czechoslovakia, left for England after the Soviet invasion in 1968. He arrived in Canada in 1969 and studied photography at Ryerson from 1971 to 1974. He has been profiled in a variety of magazines, including Zoom, Communication Arts, La Fotografia, and Colour Foto. In 1991, he was chosen by Kodak for its international campaign. This year he participated in an exhibition in Prague of work by exiled photographers.
Kevin Van Paassen , born in Calgary, Alta. graduated from the journalism arts program at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in 1997. He moved to Toronto in 1999 to begin freelancing for the National Post. After 5 years at the National Post Van Paassen moved to the Globe and Mail where he was hired as a staff photographer in 2004. Based in Toronto he has photographed various assignments for the Globe, both domestic and abroad, including stories examining Canada’s health care system as well as the war in Afghanistan.
Steve Simon has been passionate about documenting life through photography since he began taking photographs at age 12 in Montreal. He graduated from Concordia University with a degree in Communications/Journalism. He has participated as a guest lecturer and workshop leader at various photography and arts events in Canada, The United States, and Argentina. He has had solo shows in New York, Buenos Aires, Toronto and Montreal and his work has been featured three times at the Visa Pour L’Image Photography Festival in Perpignan, France. He has received numerous international awards and published four books.
Lauren Vopni, spent the latter part of 2007 in Kigali as an intern with the Rwanda Initiative, placed by the organization Journalists for Human Rights (JHR). Lauren has a B.A. in Political Science and Art History from McGill University and a Photojournalism diploma from the Western Academy of Photography in Victoria, B.C.
The PhotoSensitive mission to Rwanda was undertaken with the financial support of the
Government of Canada provided through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) The Journalism and Development Initiative, a component of CIDA’s Development Information Program, aims to support activities proposed by Canadian journalists who are interested in enhancing their professional experience in the field of international development and cooperation.
For further information, please contact:
The Rwanda Initiative
Allan Thompson
allan_thompson@carleton.ca
613-799-1791
PhotoSensitive
James Burns
james@photosensitive.com
905-282-9074
www.photosensitive.com
Thursday, July 17, 2008 in News Releases
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