Cluster Bombs and the Portraits of Impact

It almost seems wrong to call Alison Locks’ photographs ‘beautiful’, but that they are. Poised, elegant, and respectful, they allow light itself to take on character, somehow giving the subjects room to be present in the images. What is not beautiful however is the subject matter itself. ‘What Remains’ is an exhibition detailing the impact of cluster bombs on the lives of people in counties affected. Working alongside filmmaker Chris Anderson, Locke travelled to nine countries to document and allow the camera to bear witness to the impact of cluster bombs, as part of Landmine Action, a UK based NGO’s campaign to ban the use of cluster bombs.

Speaking in Dublin at a conference on Human Rights imagery yesterday, Locke spoke about allowing injured individuals, through photography and film to ‘act as witness to their experience’, giving them ‘time and space’ to reflect on and communicate their suffering.

What results is a deeply moving portrayal of individuals, whose injuries have uprooted their lives.

Yesterday, also came the historic announcement from Dublin, that an international ban on cluster bombs has been agreed. The ban includes the use, production, stockpiling and transport of cluster munitions. However, some of the leading users of the munitions, US, Israel, Russia and China have not signed the deal. Campaigners say that the ban will however, send out a clear message the bombs are unacceptable.

‘What Remains’ will be on display in the Gallery of Photography in Dublin’s Temple Bar until May 31.

http://www.galleryofphotography.ie/exhibitions/what_remains.html

More on the campaign to ban cluster bombs can be found on:


http://www.stopclustermunitions.org/

AND

http://www.landmineaction.org/

Coming to a sofa near you.. or a wall, or a town square, or a TV, or a mobile phone...

Imagine thousands of people coming together to share their own stories.

Imagine the world connecting in a global day of film.

Imagine watching the tears and laughter, hopes and dreams, of people all across the world.

Well, come May 10th this is about to happen.

Pangea Day, is the result of filmmaker Jehane Noujaim's 2007 TED Wish to Change the World. It will be a global day of international film- an effort to bridge cultural divides and increase our understanding of our global neighbours.

The films will be broadcast live on the internet and television. There will also be a series of main sites in cities across the continents- Cairo, Kigali, London, LA, Mumbai and Rio, along with a growing number of smaller events around the world.

I'll be hosting an event from a sofa in Dublin. You can do so too. To find out more visit the Pangea Day website.

Tune in on Sunday 9th March- Newstalk’s Change Makers series.

As part of the Change Makers series on Newstalk (106-108FM), documentary maker Louise Williams came along with me to St. Andrew’s College, where I gave a presentation on my travels to fourth year students. She interviewed myself and some of the students. The show will be broadcast at 1pm, Sunday 9th March and will also be available for download from the Newstalk website.

A Reconsideration of Rats

Rats and Clare don’t generally make a pretty combination, but this week I have been reconsidering my stance. In the space of a week, I have heard about an organisation in Mozambique, called APOPO, three times.

APOPO trains “Hero Rats’, African Giant Pouched Rats, to detect landmines. With an advanced sense of smell, but still light enough that they do not detonate the mines, the rats are able to cheaply, but effectively, clear large areas of land in Mozambique,- a country still riddled with the legacy of civil war. But there is more- the rats can also be used to sniff out disease and are being currently used to detect TB.

I got to see the rats in action when documentary maker Simon Reeve visited APOPO on his recent Tropic of Capricorn adventures, as broadcast on BBC.