Human suffering comes under sharp focus at photography exhibition in UAE

CLOSE-UP AND PERSONAL: Sharjah Expo visitors explore Xposure photo galleries. A total of 1,112 works by 357 photographers are on display at the event which ends today. - Photo by M. Sajjad

Photographs of human sufferings - war, conflict, heartbreak, victimisation, mass destruction, terrorism, human rights abuses, detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants - are some of the powerful images exhibited at Xposure 2019, the ongoing Sharjah international photography exhibition.
Multi-award-winning documentary photographer David Chancellor told Khaleej Times that his photographs at the event are a showcase of the suffering of the Samburu tribe in Africa. "I continue to examine mankind's commodification of wildlife. My images reveal how the tribe is living and suffering from oppression due to tourism. The tribe, popularly known as the butterfly people, struggle to survive in the wild which is now dominated by businesses that ignore them."
Photojournalist, war photographer and researcher Afshin Ismaeli is displaying images of victims of wars and conflict in Iraq, Syria, Iran, Turkey, Greece and Bosnia. "I'm trying to get to the unique, untold stories, and it's often in war zones," said Ismaeli.
The lost childhood gallery of Spanish photographer Antonio Aragón Renuncio is about children in unfortunate situations. One of them is Douti, a 12-year-old boy, resting after medical treatment during a malaria outbreak at the Saint Louis Orione for children with disabilities in Bombouaka, Togo.
Renuncio's gallery titled Undocumented shows the suffering of immigrants at borders of the USA - being detained, deported and harassed. The gallery includes an image of two-year-old Honduran immigrant Yanela Sanchez, crying as she and her mother Sandra Sanchez are taken into custody near the US-Mexico border in Texas. Another image shows a boy from Honduras watching a movie at an immigrant detention facility run by US Customs and Border Protection.
afkarali@khaleejtimes.com

• Sharjah

Afkar Ali Ahmed

afkarali@khaleejtimes.com