Here are the rest of the exhibitions at the Festival Photo Reporter 2012, with 15 new photo series produced by the festival.
An Indigenous, Heroic and Incorruptible Police Force – Pierre-Yves Marzin (FR) (member of the collective RIVA PRESS)
In Mexico, a decaying democracy and lawless state, 95% of legal cases go unsolved – impunity rules. Yet there is one place where the opposite is true – a place that is a patchwork of indigenous communities, in the state of Guerrero, six hours’ drive south of Mexico. Here the Policia de la Montaña have managed to drive down criminality, theft, rape and kidnapping and discourage bandits and drug traffickers.
They are a parallel police force (720 police officers spread over 32 communities) that do not believe in punishment, but instead in re-education: the guilty are assigned community service. The force’s merit is all the stronger when the two overhanging threats are considered: the groups of drug traffickers interested in the territory where poppies are farmed and the Canadian mining companies that are threatening part of their environment.
Putin’s Russia – Antoine Gyori (FR)
On the eve of the Russian presidential election March 4th 2012, Antoine Gyori seeked to create a portrait of today’s Russia, a Russia of authoritative power with little respect for individual or public freedom, a Russia with a liberal economic structure that has produced a leap backwards for its population rarely seen throughout history. Taking advantage of the presidential election of March 4th, he followed the “NASHI”, young militant members of the political party instituted by Valdimir Putin. The religious aspect is also addressed. Russia is seeing a revival of the orthodox religion throughout the country. More than two hundred churches are to be erected in the outlying areas of the town. The vast project is aimed at reawakening faith and simplifying access for Muscovite believers.
The Waters of the Nile: Sharing or War? – Franck Vogel – Artist in residence in St Brieuc (FR)
The 4,160-mile-long Nile – the result of the confluence of the White Nile and the Blue Nile – is the longest river in the world. It is synonymous with survival and wealth for the eleven countries that it crosses (Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi), that are still not on equal footing in terms of water rights.
It was in 1929 that the British Empire decided to grant 87% of the river’s water to Egypt and the Sudan alone, with a right to veto all upstream dam projects. The other countries deem the situation unfair and they have been trying to change it for more than 10 years. On May 14th 2010, led by Ethiopia, four East African countries have signed a new agreement on sharing the Nile waters, despite a boycott by Egypt and Sudan, fiercely opposed to the project.
More than ever, Egypt is hanging on to what it considers to be an inalienable right, but Ethiopia is not taking any notice. Often described as Africa’s “water tower” because of its altitude, Ethiopia plans to finalize its masterpiece on the Blue Nile – the Grand Millennium Dam – in 2015. The construction is aggravating relations with countries further north and will cause internal population displacements because of the enormous reservoir which will be bigger than Lake Tana, the sacred source of the Abay (the Blue Nile). Moreover, we often forget that the Nile has already experienced a water war which started in 1983 with the second conflict between South and North Sudan. The government was going to finish building the Jonglei canal on the White Nile to increase flow and reduce water loss by draining the water away from the swampy Sudd area . The first water war broke out and led to the independence of South Sudan on July 9th 2011. Tension is tangible in the various countries concerned and the big issue has raised its head: will they manage to reach an understanding, or will they go to war? Only time will tell, but in the meantime ordinary people are suffering.
Immigracion Topographica – Gary Knight (US)
This subject transports us to southern Arizona along the Mexican border. Each day, South American immigrants try to cross the hostile desert where many meet their death. On top of difficult climatic conditions, the immigrants cannot rely on anyone: locals destroy the water supplies put in place by the NGOs and private militia are hired to kill the migrants. As well as being a passageway to North America, it is an area where all sorts of criminals are in hiding.
Gary Knight travelled through the endless desert, scattered with tombs, “Rape Trees” and improvised places of pilgrimage. He shows us, using the clothes and objects abandoned by the migrants, that they sometimes end up making choices that, to us, appear irrational.
The Fixed-Term Life – Olivier Jobard (FR)
In this time of financial crisis and recession, with falling standards of living and lower buying power, an increasing number of workers are living in precarious conditions. Whether they are young, seniors, with or without qualifications or official status, stable employment is now only available to a small part of the French population. Few are trade union members, they are rarely defended, do not often figure in the media and are more concerned with surviving than asserting their rights. Their case is never examined and yet their lives are a reality – they are on the edge of an infernal spiral from which it is difficult to escape. Olivier Jobard offers to immerse us in the heart of this precarious France over several months.
Afghanistan: Inside Women’s Prisons – Sonia Naudy (FR)
Licentiousness, blasphemy, consumption of alcohol, adultery, running away from home, even rape – in Afghanistan nearly three quarters of the women locked up in prison are there for so-called “moral” crimes. But in a country where women’s rights are ridiculed, it is in prison that women can finally breathe freely. The penitentiary world in Afghanistan is a paradox. Prisoners enjoy a certain amount of freedom inside detention centres. They come and go as they please, most of them with no veil, smoke cigarettes, wear make-up… They have access to lessons teaching reading and writing, English, or computer skills, offered by the Afghan NGOs. However, all of this will be completely useless to them on the outside as they are not allowed to exercise any professional activity. Sonia Naudy’s project consists in showing “the after-prison”, as this is often when the hardest part begins for former female prisoners.
Construction of the Three Gorges Dam – Zeng Nian (FR)
Construction of the Three Gorges Damn, the largest hydraulic dam in the world, located in the province of Hubei in the heart of China, began in 1994. In 2011 the Chinese State Council acknowledged the worrying consequences of the dam: 1 400 000 people have been displaced, and several different types of damage to the environment have been caused by the dam – landslides, pollution, low water flows, drought downstream of the dam, and the drying up of two big lakes making navigation impossible
Known in particular for the work he produced in 1996 concerning the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, Zeng Nian wanted to return to the site and pick up the trail of the workers, families and Buddhists monks that he had met and photographed sixteen years earlier.
United we were strong – Pierre Terdjman (FR)
The founding fathers of the State of Israel had a dream – the creation of a society united by Judaism. Today that dream has being shattered. Throughout the suburbs and poor areas, the Israeli nation, reputed for its economic dynamism and its propensity to encourage the “Aliyah” (or return to Israel) of the Jews is showing its limits: unemployment, violence, drugs and ethnic discrimination are weakening the unity of Israeli society. The Israeli Arabs, in the same way as the Jews that have recently arrived from North Africa, Russia and Ethiopia, have not all been integrated in the melting-pot of the Holy Land. As a nation of 7 million, Israel must now tackle its capacity for integrating all its people.
Photo Reporter, festival international de la Baie de St Brieuc 2012
Exhibitions from October 19th to November 11th ,2012
Une police indigène, héroïque et incorruptible – Pierre-Yves Marzin (FR)
La Russie de Poutine – Antoine Gyori (FR)
Retour au barrage des Trois Gorges – Zeng Nian (FR)
Carré Rosengart
Quai armez
22000 Saint-Brieuc – France
Monday – Saturday : 10am – 12.30am – 1.30pm – 6pm, Sunday : 2pm – 6pm. Closed on Sunday.
L’eau du Nil, partage ou guerre ? – Franck Vogel – Artiste en résidence à St Brieuc (FR)
Afghanistan, dans les prisons pour femmes – Sonia Naudy (FR)
Siège du Crédit Agricole
espace Argoat, La croix tual
22440 Ploufragan – France
Monday – Saturday – 10am – 6pm.
Closed on Sunday
La vie à durée déterminée – Olivier Jobard (FR)
Musée d’art et d’histoire
rue des Lycéens Martyrs
Pavillon des expos permanentes 2ème étage
22000 Saint-Brieuc – France
Tuesday – Saturday : 10am – 12am – 1.30pm – 6pm. Sunday : 2pm – 6pm.
Immigracion Topographica – Gary Knight (US)
Jardin d’hiver
11 place du général de gaulle
22000 Saint-Brieuc – France
Monday – Friday : 10am – 12.30am – 1.30pm – 5pm. Sunday 2pm – 6pm.
United we were strong – Pierre Terdjman (FR)
Le Cap
6 rue de la Croix
22190 Plérin – France
Monday, Tuesday, Friday : 2pm – 6pm, Wednesday 9.30am – 12am – 2pm – 6pm, Saturday 9.30am – 16pm, Sunday : 2pm – 6pm.
