Disposable People: Contemporary Global Slavery
Royal Festival Hall, London
JUST as we have been celebrating the official abolition of the transatlantic slave trade 200 years ago, comes evidence that, far from ending, slavery has taken new forms praying principally on poverty and destitution. An estimated 27 million people worldwide are still caught up in slavery and servitude – more than any other time in human history.
The plight of some are told in Disposable People, a hard-hitting exhibition featuring the work of eight contemporary documentary photographers with a strong concern for human rights, as well as a record for first-class journalism. Each takes an in-depth look at the prevalence of slavery and injustice in a particular part of the world. The images and accompanying text make for salutary reading.
Projects include child labour in Bangladesh, the effects of international trade rules on farmers in Ganam, chattel slavery in Sudan, the trafficking of young people from eastern Europe, the appalling conditions of Indonesian women working as domestic servants in Singapore, Haitian child slaves, Japanese women held as prostitutes in South Korea in the Second World War and Haitian workers held in bonded labour in the Dominican republic.
The faces of the Japanese women forced to serve as sex slaves in South Korea featured in black-and-white portraits by Chris Steel-Perkins – euphemistically known as “Comfort Women” – are now lined and careworn. Their personal memories of the experience are tellingly recorded in interviews, a vivid reminder of how all is seen to be fair in war and conflict.
In Stuart Franklin’s colour images of Sudan, the faces are forlorn and sad, often contrasting with the richly coloured outfits in cobalt blues and saffron yellows.
Although slavery was officially abolished, it continues today following an upsurge during the second Sudanese civil war, 1983-2005. Sudanese militia and Baggara tribesmen from the north, armed during the war, conduct raids into the south of the country, enslaving women and children. Some 10,000 southern Sudanese still live in slavery in Darfur, Korddofass and as far away as Libya.
Appallingly treated, their diet consists of leftover scraps while the women are regularly raped. One such figure is Deng Deng Akoe, a youth who managed to escape despite his leg being regularly injected to paralyse it and prevent him running away. Even his lower arm was crudely chopped off to punish him. Yet he did escape and tells horror stories of his time as a slave.
In his series Trafficking in the Ukraine, the photographer Jim Goldberg takes a different approach, spending time in an area where vast numbers of refugees and the immigrant population travel from the war-torn economy. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the coal industry – the chief employer – was closed down, resulting in massive unemployment. The outcome saw women, men and children trafficked to more prosperous areas of Europe where they were promised employment. Instead they were exploited as cheap labour, payments were not forthcoming and escape was made impossible.
In a continuing project, Goldberg uses Polaroids – some have which have been inscribed by the subjects – text, photographs and such like to conjure up a picture of the plight of these people, a graphic tale in which human life seems to count for very little.
At a time when socially concerned reportage is out of favour, an exhibition that makes use of photography to highlight some of the misery and horrifying conditions under which people manage to survive is more than welcome.
Emmanuel Cooper
Disposable People continues until November 9 before touring to Plymouth, Newcastle, Carlisle, Nottingham and Aberystwyth
