Agents of change
The fifth edition of Sharjah’s Xposure International Photography Festival showed the power of the medium to make real and lasting change and the impact of a story well told.
By Anna Seaman
With the sky tinged red by the morning sun cresting upon the horizon, the Arch of Triumph in Syria’s ancient desert city of Palmyra looks even more majestic. Captured by Sergey Ponomarev in 2014, a few months before the magnificent triple-arched Roman monument was destroyed by ISIS forces, this is possibly the last journalistic image taken of the landmark. Ponomarev, a prominent Russian photojournalist, was in Syria in 2013 and 2014 covering the war. This February, a collection of his images was on show at Sharjah’s annual Xposure International Photography Festival. This particular shot of Palmyra’s landmark in the dawn light was being exhibited for the first time.
“It is my honour to bring it here and to show it to the public,” he tells Hadara. “It was a struggle to shoot this image, to get access at sunrise as well as to navigate the country during the war. But I decided to show it here because this monument is only a memory now and this is my testimony to the heritage of Syria and the region.”
Ponomarev’s time in Syria opened his eyes to the migrant crisis that was beginning to affect Europe and his coverage of it earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 2016. The Russian was one of many internationally acclaimed photographers in Sharjah for the fifth edition of the festival, which he says was characterised by its dedication to the art of photography in all its forms, commenting on how landscapes, portraits and artistic images were juxtaposed with gritty journalistic and narrative-based exhibitions. “It is very interesting to have this conjunction of generations in one space,” he says. “It sheds new light on existing stories and also helps us see our own images in new contexts.”
Educating both the public and amateur photographers is something that the founder of the event, Sheikh Sultan Bin Ahmed Al Qasimi, Chairman of Sharjah Media Council, prioritises. “Xposure is a place of learning; it is a unique platform to acquire knowledge from the masters, discover inspiring new work, and exchange ideas and artistic expressions through engagement with the larger photographic community,” he says. “Xposure nurtures and promotes the art of photography in diverse genres, and the festival serves as a bridge between the regional and global photographic communities to scale up their professional network.”
Top image by SERGEY PONOMAREV This previously unseen image of the Arch of Triumph in Syria’s ancient desert city of Palmyra was taken in 2014. The Roman monument was destroyed shortly after by ISIS forces.
PAULA BRONSTEIN In her powerful photo essay, Bronstein bears witness to the complexity of daily life in Afghanistan. Masooma, badly burned from self-immolation, highlights the many challenges women in the country face.
TRAN TUAN VIET Burning incense is a ritual that symbolises the spiritual and cultural values of the Vietnamese. Over many years, Viet sought to capture the culture and people of his homeland.
The consensus amongst all attending the four-day event was gratitude that it was happening in real life, amid so many Covid-19 restrictions and cancellations globally. Clearly, the organiser—Sharjah Government Media Bureau, headed by Sheikh Sultan Bin Ahmed—pulled out all the stops to make it happen.
“Especially in the time of a pandemic, the arts are not a luxury but a way to heal communities,” Sheikh Sultan Bin Ahmed says. “No digital encounter can fully replicate the captivating experience that physical interaction with the art form of photography offers. For our participating photographers as well as festival attendees, Xposure offers unparalleled opportunities to connect with a globally diverse photographic community. Their presence here, amid an ongoing pandemic, attests to the increasing importance of this dynamic platform to showcase their work.”
War-time images, such as Ponomarev’s, were a large part of the exhibitions. Paula Bronstein’s captivating narratives from the war in Afghanistan depicted pain and suffering but in beautifully shot, and often portrait-style images that convey the untold stories of violence and injustice. Ron B. Wilson’s photo essay on 9/11 brought audiences into the centre of that chaotic day in New York almost 20 years ago, and KM Asad’s remarkable black and white stills of a garment factory collapsing in Bangladesh highlighted the tragic exploitation of cheap labour in his hometown of Dhaka. The power of photography to unite and build connections was the driving force behind the event’s curation and selection.
Brent Stirton, a South African documentary and wildlife photographer, was showing an exhibition of work that was originally shot for National Geographic in 2017 on falconry in Dubai. Conservation and sustainability issues, he says, are a great bridge between the Middle East and the West. “It is a tremendous common value system that we should explore more. It is almost entirely because of the Arab world that falcons survive today,” he continues, referring to his work on show in Sharjah. “The birds reached a point of near extinction in the ‘60s and ‘70s because of commercial pesticides, but thanks to the heritage of falconry in this part of the world, a great deal of money was poured into saving them. This is a genuine conservation success story on a wide scale.”
FRANCESCO ZIZOLA Zizola’s exhibition, Mare Omnis, is part of a long-term project documenting the relationship between man and nature. This image, The Trap, was taken in Sardinia in 2018.
BRENT STIRTON Starting before dawn, Sheikh Rashid Bin Butti Bin Maktoum Bin Juma Al Maktoum, a member of the Dubai royal family, trains his falcons in the desert outside Dubai.
DANIEL KORDAN Kordan’s work captures the beauty and magic of the natural world, highlighting its diversity and fragility. In Western Mongolia’s Altai region, a small group of nomads keep the tradition of eagle hunting alive.
Animals and their habitats were some of the visual highlights of the event. Daniel Kordan’s intimate and yet otherworldly portraits of Mongolia’s last surviving eagle hunters did more than illuminate the beauty of the birds. They also revealed details of life in the country’s remote Altai region. Francesco Zizola’s exhibition, Mare Omnis: The Sea as a Sacred Relationship between Man and Nature, depicted underwater scenes in black and white that added to both the drama and the beauty.
Zizola delved into the idea of visual narrative during his talk, which formed part of the continuous programming across the four days allowing visitors to hear and learn from the photographers. “Poetry is the code through which humans can confront a purer idea of truth, where language shows its inability to touch what it describes,” Zizola says.
Harmony and poetry were the subject of Tran Tuan Viet’s portrayal of the visual allure of his home country, Vietnam. Colour and form unite in his images to give them a painterly quality so that they are enchanting to stand in front of. A woman who is sewing a fishing net in the coastal province of Ninh Thuan appears to be engulfed by it and a man who rolls bright red bundles of incense sticks in Hanoi looks to be sitting amid a field of blooming flowers.
Whilst beauty and aesthetic pleasure are at the heart of what photography represents, it is also the ability of a piece of art to highlight a neglected story that makes it so powerful. It is for this reason that Sheikh Sultan Bin Ahmed says that the work of Robin Hammond was a standout contribution to the festival. The New Zealand-born photographer has been producing work on mental health and neurological disorders since visiting South Sudan in 2011. He learned then that people with mental health conditions were chained and locked away. Hammond visited a prison and was shocked to discover dozens of men and women living in the most horrific conditions. Since then, he has used his work to change the perception of mental health.
ABDULLA ALBUQAISH Sharjah-born Albuqaish specializes in taking cityscapes, combining his passions for photography and architecture. This image is titled, The Power of Light.
Sheikh Sultan Bin Ahmed says that Hammond “brings out the emotional rawness of the vulnerable in countries and humanises their stories through technical brilliance. Through his visual storytelling, Hammond’s work has been instrumental in advancing human rights of the mentally ill. This body of work showcased at Xposure is a testament to the monumental impact one photographer can make to influence nations in taking the remedial actions to better lives,” he says.
The impact of a single image or a collection of images can have a lasting effect on its viewer, but sometimes on the subject itself. Muhammed Muheisen, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner and National Geographic photographer, presented an exhibition called Voices about refugees’ plight across the world.
“At the back end of my work I have a foundation, and whenever I share these images I get a message from people who want to be involved,” he explains. “So, simply, Xposure helps me not just to share pictures but to make an actual difference to help real people.”
At the event’s closing ceremony, after more than 8,000 people visited, Sheikh Sultan Bin Ahmed recognised the lensmen involved, calling them “agents of change”. In a passion- ate address, he says that the pictures at this festival serve as reminders that change is needed. “Their images spur awakening and rally the masses,” he says. “These photographs reaffirmed my belief that the trials humanity faces today will surely pass. We will overcome them, and the outcome of our experiences will reflect in greater resilience.”
ROBIN HAMMOND Yendani Mathieu, centre, lives with a mental health condition. He is usually chained to a tree in the grounds of the Pentecostal Church of Bokiccenag, in northern Togo.
MUHAMMED MUHEISEN Muheisen tells the stories of those whose voices are rarely heard. Hamagai Akbar, 5, is an Afghan refugee at a makeshift school in a mosque on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan.
