Costs of War: Photography from the Gaza-Israel-Lebanon Frontlines
The exhibit of war photography, featuring the work of Palestinian and Israeli photo-journalists working on the Gaza-Israel-Lebanon frontlines, will debut at the LCACE Inside Out Festival in October 2009.
The exhibit recognises and honours the work of the featured photographers, in a composition that demonstrates the human costs of war, irrespective of the religious and national identities of the protagonists and casualties.
The juxtaposition of the images in the exhibit draws attention to the parallels and paradoxes in warfare. Accompanying notations and citations reference the locations and incidents depicted in individual shots – yet together they tell a bigger story. Inclusion of quotations from politicians and commentators on various sides reinforce the message that war has unintended consequences and resort to violence – by any party – does not come without costs to all.
Through the power of visual art this exhibit starkly articulates the central concerns of a number of intellectual and academic disciplines studied at City University London and across LCACE institutions and contacts, including journalism and media studies, war reporting, conflict studies and international politics.
The event will showcase the range of expertise required to mount the project, from curation skills to photo-journalism. The involvement of other academics in the LCACE consortium, notably the Department of War Studies at Kings College London, is much appreciated by their colleagues at City University London.
The exhibit is initiated by City University scholar Yoav Galai, an award-winning Israeli photo-journalist, and includes photographs taken by him in Lebanon (2006). The event enables him to realise his aspiration to communicate The Costs of War.
The photographers featured will include Uriel Sinai, Amit Shabi, Yoav Galai, Mahmud El-Hams, Tal Cohen, Fady Adwan and Abed Katib. Permission has been granted for inclusion of their work from both the photographers themselves and their employers, including Agence France Press (AFP) and Getty Images. As well as honouring the work of each of the individual photographers, more broadly the project will demonstrate the role of war photography in capturing the essence of violent conflict in a way not possible through rolling news coverage or heated political debate.
Yoav Galai is a scholar at the City University’s Olive Tree Scholarship Programme for Israelis and Palestinians. He has lead on the design, development and mounting of the exhibit, in coordination with Dr Rosemary Hollis, Director of the Olive Tree Programme and lecturer on the International Politics of the Middle East (whose qualifications include an MA in War Studies from Kings College London), and Professor Howard Tumber of the School of Arts and Humanities at City (who has written extensively on photo-journalism in the context of war).
The project will demonstrate the contribution of HE in journalism and politics to the arts and cultural sector through war photography. Using this visual medium the exhibit will open up an area of debate on the Middle East and other conflicts not necessarily so accessible through verbal and written academic discourse on war, international politics and journalism studies. It will therefore create a space for academics in these and other disciplines to engage a broader public, and make an impact on debates about war in the Middle East, given that the photography features both Israeli and Palestinian perspectives and realities.
The project is also intended to raise the profile of the Olive Tree Scholarship Programme for Palestinian and Israeli scholars at City University – a unique and farsighted endeavour – from which other HE institutions, the policy sector and business can derive insights and inspiration to inform similar schemes.
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