This month, a photograph by Robin Hammond has been selected for the year’s second poster campaign organized by the Association Inimaginable*. Recently awarded the FotoEvidence Book Award for his series Condemned, Hammond became interested in the mistreatment of the mentally ill in Africa. A photograph from the series will be on display throughout Paris from February 26 to March 5, 2013.
One picture, one week every month
Robin Hammond : Enchaînés, oubliés, condamnés. La Santé mentale dans les pays africains en crise
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in three Somalis suffers from some kind of mental illness.
Wars, famines and natural disasters not only leave the dead to be buried but also the survivors who need to go on living. While many will have come through the crisis with their bodies intact, the same cannot always be said of their minds. In the last 50 years, sub-Saharan Africa has seen more of these crises than anywhere else in the world. Their legacy is an epidemic of mental illness, mostly undiagnosed and with minimal resources to treat it.
Robin Hammond
Born in New Zealand, Robin moved to the UK in 2002 and began working as a freelance photographer. He has since become best known for his investigative work on human rights and environmental issues, often having to work undercover or in conditions of extreme hardship.
His investigation into the trafficking and exploitation of child footballers in West Africa was short listed for a One World Award in 2008 and his work from Zimbabwe later in the same year was short listed for the Care International Prize for Humanitarian photography at the Visa pour l’Image festival in Perpignan. In 2009 his story An Unforgivable Truth won an Amnesty International Media Award and in 2010 he repeated the feat twice over, picking up awards for Toxic Jeans and Zimbabwe’s Blood Diamonds.
Robin is now based in Cape Town, South Africa from where he documents stories across the continent.
Viewing sites :
– 91 Av des champs Elysées, 75008 Paris
– 18 rue Réaumur, 75003 Paris
– 21 rue de Penthievre, 75008 Paris
– 24 boulevard bonne nouvelle, 75008 Paris
– 89 rue Oberkampf, 75011 Paris
*Inimaginable is an association that provides support and financing for photography projects that concern human rights and discrimination. Too many reports today are never published due to lack of funding, and the images are never seen by the public. Inimaginable uses a participatory financing platform (KissKissBankBank) to raise production budgets for such projects. The photograph selected each month will be displayed in a poster campaign in the heart of Paris.
Every month, Le Journal present a preview of the image picked by the selecting committee.
