Farida Ado, 27, is a romance novelist living in conflicted and rapidly Islamicizing Northern Nigeria. She’s one of a small but significant contingent of women in Northern Nigeria writing books called Littattafan soyayya, Hausa for “love literature.” © Glenna Gordon.

To Photograph People Not as Victims, But as Agents of Change

In conversation with OSF’s Amy Yenkin and Siobhan Riordan

Open Society Foundations (OSF) has a long history of supporting documentary photography, particularly work that covers aspects of human rights and social justice. The 23rd iteration of OSF’s flagship Moving Walls exhibition is currently on view at the OSF New York main offices. It is called Journeys and profiles the work of five image-makers. Moving Walls, generally, is interested in projects that are as conceptual as they are journalistic with an aim to portray people as agents of change, rather than victims.

For Blink, Laurence Cornet talks to Amy Yenkin the Director of the Documentary Photography Project, and Siobhan Riordan, OSF exhibition associate about engaging audiences, exhibition strategies and what makes a photography project attractive.

Laurence: Can you talk about why Open Society Foundations is driven to support photojournalism?

Amy: To understand why the foundation supports photography you have to pull back a little bit and see the funding of photography in a broader context. We are a political foundation and advocacy oriented. OSF has been supporting independent voices documenting social justice and human rights issues through journalism, film, and photography. So, it’s not about supporting photography for photography’s sake, but for what it can do in the world to advance social issues.

We started funding photography because many photographers were doing long-term independent work on human rights and social justice issues, but support for these projects was diminishing as the media environment changed.

Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas conceived of the exhibition Moving Walls in 1998 when OSF moved into an office space on West 59th Street. Seeing the vast number of empty walls, Susan thought that a photo exhibition would be a good way to display the issues the foundation cared about while also supporting the photo community.

‘Hunter’s Bottom’ Just Across the Ohio River; Outside of Madison, Indiana. From the series ‘Through Darkness to Light: Seeking Freedom on the Underground Railroad’ © Jeanine Michna-Bales.

Laurence: Apart from Moving Walls, how does the program support photography?

Amy: We have funded organizations that support photography such as the Aftermath Project, Art Works Projects, and the Magnum Foundation, as well as Market Photo Workshop, a school that trains photographers in South Africa. We have, in the past, funded individual photographers from Central Asia and Caucasus who were working on human rights stories in their home countries. We paired them with a mentor who worked with them for six months.

Photo: @la.meloni. Ina (2), in the arms of her father Steopa (24), in their house. Her mother went to work in Russia when she was 7 months and since then, she only sporadically returns in Moldova for short visits. For Steopa, who works all day long as a mechanic to maintain his daughter is very difficult to deal alone with her education. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) one fourth of Moldova’s working-age population had left the country for working abroad. The money sent home by emigrants, worth some $500 million per year, is now the driving force of internal consumption in Moldova, but the other side of the coin is deep rifts in the country’s social fabric.

For 10 years, we have awarded a grant called the Audience Engagement Grant, which supports photographers who partner with NGOs to bring their work in front of audiences that are in position to effect change.

In addition to those efforts, we started an OSF Instagram account over a year-and-a-half ago, and every week a different photographer takes over the feed.

The foundation’s photo editor, Maggie Soladay, has reached out globally to find photographers documenting diverse stories and we now have over 92,000 followers. For people who are interested in human rights and social justice photography, it is a great place to see fresh work on important topics.

Photo: Matilde Gattoni @matildegattoni. Tea pluckers at work at Mogulkata Tea Estate, in the Dooars region. The tea industry is India’s second-largest employer, with over 3.5 million workers in more than 1,500 tea estates. In 2013–14, India accounted for 12 percent of the world tea exports. Despite being one of the biggest economic activities in India, tea industry has been repeatedly accused of gross mistreatment of its workers. Tea workers are among the worst paid in the country and their living conditions are often dire. Pluckers work 8 hours per day and earn 112,50 rupees (less than 2 USD).

Photo: James Rodríguez (@mimundo_org). A parade of Angels passes by the former convent of Concepción during the Procession of Holy Mary of the Solitude on Holy Saturday. Antigua, Sacatepequez, Guatemala. After a brutal 36-year civil war (1960–1996) that left over 250,000 victims, the tiny Central American nation, with an Indigenous Mayan population of over 50% and one of the most violent and economically polarized societies in the western hemisphere, still reels from the harrowing conflict.

Laurence: Has the site been used for other purposes besides a gallery space?

Siobhan: It’s interesting that we call it a gallery space because at the same time it’s not. It has a space dedicated to exhibitions that draws an audience interested in photography, but it is also a functional space where people like civil society actors, academics, researchers, activists and staff come in for meetings and conferences centered around the issues that the foundation is dedicated to. So we’re able to bring a diverse audience together in a way that few other spaces can.

“It’s not about supporting photography for photography’s sake, but for what it can do in the world to advance social issues.”

Amy: With this new space we really see different opportunities. Moving Walls brings together this community of artists as well as advocates, NGOs and policy makers, and it is always interesting when they come together in the room to discuss an issue.

A record sleeve of Zozo Sapountzaki a well-known Greek actress and performer also called the queen of the Athenian nightlife. Many record sleeves and other paraphernalia are found at the abandoned compound of Columbia Records in Athens, Greece. Until it closed down in 1991 it was the preeminent Greek record company and most of the country’s big performing artists were signed to the label. During the seventies many Arab musicians from either Egypt or the Middle East used the studios for their recordings. Hundreds of refugees and economic immigrants have squatted there since 2009 without water or electricity. Most of them were Algerians although there were also some Moroccans and Sudanese. All of them were trying to find a way to various European countries. Police evacuated the building in January 2012 but some immigrants still found shelter until June 2013 when the run down building was finally sealed. From the series ‘Transit In Columbia, Athens’ © Dionysis Kouris

Laurence: How about this year’s exhibition?

Siobhan: When our selection committee got together to review the applications we had received for the current show, Moving Walls 23, we saw these five bodies of work rise up together, all touching on the idea of a journey. Both literally, in terms of a migration, but also in a more abstract sense, in terms of a creative journey or a journey of identity.

Amy: One of the other things that attracted us in these works was that in all the cases, they were showing the perspective of empowerment and self-determination.

Syrian man texts family, from the series ‘Texting Syria’ © Liam Maloney.

Laurence: Can you talk about the variety of work you’ve selected and what the collection says about documentary photography today?

Amy: We’re really excited about Liam Maloney’s work Texting Syria (above) and the way it pushes the boundaries of documentary photography.

There are a lot of debates about what is photojournalism, what is documentary, and what is fine art. While it’s important in news reporting to adhere to a journalistic standard, Maloney’s work challenges its rigidity by taking a more conceptual approach.

The doors to their original homes are shut forever. Shumi (22) L and Priya’s (26) R new life offers the rules of a guru in exchange of a new home. From the series ‘Call Me Heena’ © Shahria Sharmin

From the series ‘Call Me Heena’ © Shahria Sharmin

Amy: Shahria Sharmin does this too; we love that her depictions of trans-experience contrast the conventional narrative. Rather than perpetuating stereotypical imagery that emphasizes story of passive victimhood, Shahria conveys a less common and more intimate perspective of their personal hopes and dreams as they seek acceptance through each other, at home, or in their adopted country.

Magnolia Plantation on the Cane River, LA; “They worked me all de day, Widout one cent of pay; So I took my flight in de middle ob de night, When de moon am gone away.” — chorus of Geo. W. Clark Liberty Song. From the series ‘Through Darkness to Light: Seeking Freedom on the Underground Railroad’ © Jeanine Michna-Bales.

Amy: And then there’s Jeanine Michna-Bales’ project that documents the journey that many African American men, women, and children took in the nineteenth century to resist slavery and escape the South using the Underground Railroad, heading north to Canada. The artist relied on research and oral history to imagine one path toward freedom and re-envision various sites and stops along the way.

Sofiane at the deserted building of Columbia Records in Athens. He stayed there for six months. He went back to his homeland, Algeria, since all his strong efforts to reach France were unsuccessful. From the series ‘Transit In Columbia, Athens’ © Dionysis Kouris

Laurence: How was the exhibit designed to highlight the photographer’s message?

Siobhan: For instance, Liam Maloney’s Texting Syria is an immersive installation that shows back-lit portraits of Syrian refugees living in a slaughterhouse in Lebanon after having escaped the conflict in Homs.

Actual text messages, translated from the original Arabic, sent between a refugee in Lebanon and a loved one still trapped in Syria, July 2013. From the series ‘Texting Syria’. © Liam Maloney.

These are portraits of them at night, texting their family and friends who are still trapped in Homs. But alongside the portraits, Liam presents the actual text messages, translated into English.

The text messages are included into the exhibition in two ways: a selection of them are shown on a monitor, so that you can read them side by side to the portraits, and there is also a phone number you can dial to start receiving those messages on your phone. To interact with the work on a level that intimate, to have your own phone ring or buzz with a life or death message, is a powerful emotional experience.

Farida Ado, 27, is a romance novelist living in conflicted and rapidly Islamicizing Northern Nigeria. She’s one of a small but significant contingent of women in Northern Nigeria writing books called Littattafan soyayya, Hausa for “love literature.” © Glenna Gordon.

Siobhan: The intimate, the emotional and the interactive — we tried to do for all the artists’ installations, to include some additional pieces of the story. For Glenna Gordon’s work about northern Nigerian romance novelists, we were able to feature their books in the exhibition. We created an installation that puts you in the market place where these books are sold, and we included translations of some of the books as well, so that you can dive into those stories first hand.

Books are tied up and packaged at the local market in Kano, Northern Nigeria. While Northern Nigeria is best known for Boko Haram, an Islamic terrorist group whose name means ‘Western Education is sinful,’ there’s a small but significant contingent of hijab wearing ladies writing subversive romance novels. © Glenna Gordon.

Laurence: Does the exhibit specifically aim to break the boundaries of photography and documentation?

Amy: We hope that the Moving Walls exhibition encourages the field to rethink traditional boundaries of documentary photography. Sometimes that involves bringing the subject’s voice into the work; sometimes it means taking a more conceptual approach. We want to show photography that portrays people as agents of their own change, as opposed to victims of their situations. We feel it is a very important shift that needs to take place in photography, not only stylistically but also in the way photographers report about people.

Moving Walls 23 is open to the public at the Open Society Foundations HQ in New York — 224 West 57th Street, NYC.

You can follow the Open Society Foundation Documentary Photography Project’s activities through the OSF Twitter, YouTube and Instagram feeds.

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Laurence Cornet is a writer, a photography critic and a curator based in Brooklyn. Her clients include L’Oeil de la Photographie, The Magnum Foundation, Images magazine, Vice, MSNBC, Vogue and Camera.