01 / 05

Disposable People

Today, over 200 years after the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, an estimated 27 million people worldwide are still locked into slavery and servitude across the globe. This major new photography exhibition, organised in collaboration with Autograph ABP and Hayward Touring, will take an in-depth look at the prevalence of slavery and injustice in the 21st century through the lenses of eight internationally acclaimed Magnum photographers.

In the ‘heroic’ era of photojournalism – roughly from the Spanish Civil War until the late 1960s – it seems that a single image could define the greatest human dramas and catastrophes. Today, digital manipulation has undermined photography’s claim to veracity; video is available on everyone’s mobile; and artists and amateurs have taken over the territory of intimate revelation. What authority does documentary photography retain as a record of events and source of insight into the historical realities of the world?

The famous photo-agency, Magnum, founded in 1947 to represent independent photojournalists who travelled the world in search of stories, remains the touch-stone of quality and seriousness in documentary photography. This major exhibition, selected by Mark Sealy, Director of Autograph ABP, presents newly commissioned photo-essays by nine internationally renowned Magnum photographers, all of whom have a strong commitment to human rights issues. Each explores an aspect of slavery in the world today.

Abbas Iranian, born 1944; Ian Berry British b.1934; Stuart Franklin British b.1956; Jim Goldberg American b.1953; Susan Meiselas American b.1948; Paolo Pellegrin Italian b.1964; Chris Steele-Perkins, British b. Burma 1947; Alex Webb American b.1952.

A Hayward Touring exhibition in collaboration with Autograph ABP and Magnum Photos