Disposable People: Contemporary Global Slavery was a major new photography exhibition, organised by Hayward Touring in collaboration with the photographic agencies Autograph ABP and Magnum Photos, taking an in-depth look at the prevalence of slavery and injustice in the 21st century through the lenses of eight internationally acclaimed documentary photographers.
The exhibition included projects by Abbas, Ian Berry, Stuart Franklin, Jim Goldberg, Susan Meiselas, Paolo Pellegrin, Chris Steele-Perkins and Alex Webb.
Installation of Domestic Maids as part of "Disposable People: Contemporary Global Slavery" touring exhibition, Southbank Centre, London, UK, 2008
The eight projects, commissioned by Autograph ABP, were by members of Magnum, the world’s leading photographic agency. All the photographers have a strong interest in human rights and a record for world-class photo-journalism. In the ‘heroic’ era of photo-journalism, roughly from the Spanish Civil War until the late 1960s, it seemed that a single image could define the greatest human dramas and catastrophes. In our age of digital image manipulation, camera phones and 24-hour news media, the exhibition examined the power of the documentary photograph to record and illuminate human existence.
A full illustrated catalogue ‘Documenting Disposable People’ was published to coincide with the exhibition, featuring reproductions of all the photographs in the exhibition, alongside detailed personal testimonies and texts by the photographers and Kevin Bales.
Panel from "Disposable People: Contemporary Global Slavery" touring exhibition, 2008
Panel from "Disposable People: Contemporary Global Slavery" touring exhibition, 2008
Panel from "Disposable People: Contemporary Global Slavery" touring exhibition, 2008
Panel from "Disposable People: Contemporary Global Slavery" touring exhibition, 2008
Panel from "Disposable People: Contemporary Global Slavery" touring exhibition, 2008