Annenberg Space for Photography: "Refugee"
By Billy Kung
In 2015, the world has witnessed an unprecedented number of people forcibly displaced by wars, conflict and persecution. According to the annual Global Trends Report released on June 18 last year by the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), a worldwide displacement figure close to 60 million people was recorded compared to 51.2 million a year earlier. Most distressingly however, was that the report found half of the world’s refugees are children and the situation will only worsen further.
In Los Angeles, at Annenberg Space for Photography comes a timely exhibition titled “Refugee,” featuring works by five internationally renowned photographers commissioned solely for this exhibition: veteran British photojournalist Tom Stoddart; fashion and portrait photographer Omar Victor Diop from Senegal; renowned New York Times and Pulitzer prize winner Lynsey Addario; German photographer Martin Schoeller famously known for his detailed close-ups portraiture; and Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide whose graceful and poetic documents of various indigenous people in her own country remains second to none.
