I attended the opening of SA photojournalist Joao Silva’s Retrospective Exhibition on 23rd October at Museum Africa.
The
exhibition was first held in France and thanks to the Portuguese Embassy has
now travelled to South Africa
The 55
images still float in and out of my mind.
They are of
conflicts in South Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of
the work can and should be seen on his website www.joaosilva.co.za
along with images covering Prisons of Malawi, Child Servitude in Ghana and War In Lebanon.
Joao, had
both of his legs blown off by a landmine in Afghanistan on 23rd October 2010. The last
image of the exhibition is a triptych of US Marines clearing
landmines – in the last shutter click he captured was as he stood on the landmine. Since then he has,
so far, undergone 70 operations.
Having
witnessed such violence in his life, I asked Joao if he still believed in humanity.
His quick reply was, “more than ever” .
In his talk
he did however speak of the
necessity for a camera to be present wherever there is violence, crime and
injustice.
His images
are of brutality perpetrated from all sides making the point that there is no winning side
in war.
As the photographs depict, the victim is always and ultimately a person and our humanity.
As the photographs depict, the victim is always and ultimately a person and our humanity.
Joao’s
approach, reminded me of The Family of Man exhibition held in
the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1955 with at least 12 subsequent reprinting’s
of the photographic work.
In a
prologue to The Family of Man book of images, the American poet Carl
Sandburg wrote,
There is only one man
in the world
and his name is All Men.
There is only one woman in the world
and her name is All Women.
There is only one child in the world
and the child's name is All Children
and his name is All Men.
There is only one woman in the world
and her name is All Women.
There is only one child in the world
and the child's name is All Children
Gary Younge wrote to this point in the Guardian News and Media recently when he said that Ebola shows that we are all connected, that it crosses all cultures and borders. He said, It shows that no matter how strong the gates around your community, how high the wall on your border, how sophisticated the alarm on your house; no matter how much you avoid state schools, public transport and public libraries; no matter how much you pay the premium to retreat from the public sphere, you cannot escape both your own humanity and the humanity of others, and the fact that our fates are tied.
Joao's work punches home the same point regarding war, violence, and our inhumanity toward one another, his images reflect the universality of human emotions and that our task is to not get caught in constructed ideologies that separate us one from another.
His exhibition also makes us appreciate the bravery and focus of the great photo journalists who go to the edge of human behaviour to remind us not to go there. Remarkably, the selected images taken amidst chaos and terror have even been composed to have a terrible beauty. (With apologies to Irish poet, Yates).
Thank you Joao Silva. We salute you.
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