EYEWITNESS Exhibition

The Photographic Gallery in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication presents Eyewitness, a photographic documentary about the aftermath of armed conflicts by award winning documentary photographer René Clement.

The iconic Vietnam War photograph, Napalm Girl (1972), shocked the world and changed the course of this anticolonial conflict. The image was later credited for hastening an end to the Vietnam War. Over decades the public has witnessed horrific atrocities streaming live on media platforms, often sparking outrage across the world yet without affecting political policy or reducing wars and conflicts. Has the visual image lost its agency? Has the public become numb to horrifying realities of wars?
The ongoing genocide in Gaza and violence across the region brings forth these questions about the responsibility of the media and audiences to respond in meaningful ways to human suffering.

Eyewitness brings together René Clement´s photo work from six conflict zones. The exhibition documents stories of suffering from the Palestinian West Bank (occupied since 1967), Afghanistan (war between 2001 - 2021), Iraq (war between 2003 - 2011), Bosnia (war between 1992 - 1995), Mexico (indigenous uprising against government in 1994), and Haiti (coup d’etat in 2004).
Over the course of thirty three years, Clement used the photographic medium to shed light on the continued suffering of the people who live in regions still torn by the ravages of armed conflicts.

The body of work on view broaches the subjects of displacement, mental illness, violence against women, as well as the continued cycles of conflict. This exhibition is set to remind us of the state of perpetual war that characterizes the global (dis)order of the 21st century.

René Clement is a photojournalist and artist based in Cairo, Egypt. His work has been published throughout the world, and his portrait and documentary photography have been awarded numerous prizes including Time Magazine Picture of the Year, the Dutch Silver Camera competition, and the European Newspaper Award.
René Clement is originally from the Netherlands and lived in New York City from 1998 to 2018 and now calls Cairo home. He contributes his editorial photography to several European newspapers and the Beeldunie Agency. His artwork is represented by gallery Tintera in Egypt.
Clement worked on several long term projects, including Promising Land - Land vol Beloften, a photographic contemplation of six years on Dutch Americans in Iowa, and Scar Tissue, a pictorial study in newspaper format that focused on New York City, as it continued to recover from the 9/11 tragedy, ten years afterwards.
This exhibition is the first time Clement’s documentary work from wide ranging conflict zones will be seen together.
www.reneclement.com

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