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. Aberystwyth Arts Centre hosts the Disposable People exhibition bringing together eight projects by leading Magnum photojournalists which expose the unpleasant underbelly of a consumer driven world.
Included are: Abbas, documenting child labour in Bangladesh; Ian Berry, examining the effects of international trade rules on farmers in Ghana; Stuart Franklin exploring chattel slavery in Sudan; JimGoldberg, documenting the trafficking of young people from Eastern Europe; Susan Meiselas, investigating the conditions of Indonesian women working in Singapore as domestic servants; Paolo Pellegrin documenting Haitian ‘Restaveks’ (child slaves); Chris Steele- Perkins, documenting South Korean women who were held as sex slaves by the Japanese inWorldWar II and are still seeking restitution; AlexWebb, photographing Haitian cane workers held in organised bonded labour in the Dominican Republic.
The exhibition runs until January and there’s a free discussion event next Monday, November 23, with Mark Sealy, Exhibition Curator Autograph ABP and Jeff Williams, Head of Christian Aid in Wales, chaired by Jenny Edkins Professor of International Politics, Aberystwyth University.
