Cliché?

While the HUGO BOSS competition took up most of my time, I still managed to go to a gallery on Sunday morning. Didn't know what was on, but since the Photographer's Gallery is so close, there is really no excuse not going if you have half a hour to spare. I ended up stayed there for about two hours... There were a couple of exhibitions going on all at the same time, but one of them really shook me up. Fazal Sheikh exhibited Ladli – his experiences traveling through India. It was focusing on the gender inequality, which still exists in that part of the world, and violence towards women. Now, you might think: "Well, yeah, that's just so cliché to have B&W pictures of street kids and write some words of pity and how unfair everything is." Well, yes, it is cliché, but nonetheless this exhibition was so powerful and so effective, that I was completely absorbed and couldn't think about much else for the rest of the day. In fact I still have to work through the whole thing now. What stroke me most, was the fact that there was a little paragraph accompanying each photograph, not explaining who the the person is in a third person narrative, but in a first person narrative. This made it more direct and as a result a lot more effective. Still, people might think, it doesn't mean it is saying the truth and they are made up. If that is the case, it is still very well done, and deserves its place in an exhibition. But I really don't think they are made up. No one could think of such perversities as stated in the detailed descriptions – being beaten up by your husband because you didn't breed a boy, being set on fire because you refuse to have a check whether your child is a boy or a girl (so you could have an abortion in case it is a girl), being forced into prostitution because you are told you are otherwise worthless as a young girl...
It is in times like these, when I realize just how small my problems are, which I face as a Western citizen coming from a save and secure little world. It is good to clear that fog off our eyes once in a while.


Go check out the photograph's and descriptions of Ladli by Fazal Sheikh, but be aware that they are not nearly as striking and powerful as I have experienced. There is something about going to a gallery, a clean environment, where is it possible to focus on the photographs and see them in proper scale, not only on screen. And I think it is also the physical aspect of actually going to a different place, and not being stuck to a chair mindlessly clicking through the horrible place we refer to as "The Internet". Nonetheless, it still gives you a fair idea of what it is about.