Hard Truths: An exhibition of prize-winning photography from The New York Times

Cercle Cité Luxembourg in collaboration with FEP- Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography and the New York Times presents the exhibition Hard Truths: An exhibition of prize-winning photography from The New York Times.
 
The truth can be hard to look at. The photojournalists whose work is displayed here make it hard to turn away.
 
They made these images as part of journalism's highest calling: bearing witness. Sometimes, they took great personal risk. Always, they produced work that required courage, artistry, intelligence and perseverance. They gained the trust of vulnerable people whose lives sometimes depended on trusting no one. They withstood sniper fire and tear-gas canisters, because they cannot recreate situations later. They must be there. The openness we see in these faces was earned.
 
We need these images to help us understand our complicated world, to add emotion to the intellectual debates of our time. If a reporter gives voice to the voiceless, a photojournalist provides the body and the place that gave rise to that voice.
 
No one's agony was ended by the photographers' work. But it was expressed.
 
Do we have the right to not see these images? We are free people, free to be willfully ignorant or blind. But if our freedom of speech stops at shouting "fire!" in the proverbial crowded theater, then what does it say about remaining silent if the theater is indeed burning?
These photojournalists will not remain silent.
 
They grew up in Australia, Chile, Iran, Ireland and the United States, and they do this work to connect people across time, space and experience. They do it to showcase the horrific and the transcendent, the cruelty and genuine goodness — because to record moments of strength and collapse is to look into the very soul of humanity. We cannot, each of us, take action on every tragedy in the news. It can be difficult to even fathom how to help solve the problems of distant people. We begin by seeing their conditions and opening our hearts to their experience.
 
Images are influenced by their context. The newspaper, the television screen, the smartphone, the museum wall — each might contain the same image,but meaning shifts with the medium.
Do news photographs belong in a gallery exhibit? Are we aestheticizing human tragedy, trying to turn life into art?
 
The issue is more basic than we might suppose. When a photographer lifts the camera to her eye, composition, symbolism and art-historical references come into play. Also for the viewers.
And in the intense competition for our attention, poorly constructed imagery is dismissed. Bearing witness is futile if a photograph does not capture our gaze. The photojournalist selects the moment, the equipment, the vantage point, the framing in order to make the image indelible in our hearts.
 
Because the truth should make it hard to look away.
 
 
Photographers: Daniel Berehulak - Ivor Prickett - Meridith Kohut - Newsha Tavakolian - Tomas Munita 

Hard Truths has been co-curated by David Furst of The New York Times and Arthur Ollman from the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography and has been produced by the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, Minneapolis/New York/Paris/Lausanne, in collaboration with Cercle Cité - Luxembourg City.

 
With the support of ATOZ Tax Advisers Luxembourg and Société Générale Luxembourg.
 
Please note that some images may offend the sensibilities of the youngest.
 
 
OPENING ON WEDNESDAY 21.11.2018 - 6PM
With Arthur Ollman, curator of the exhibition.

FREE GUIDED TOUR OF THE EXHIBITION
22.11 - 12:30 (ENG) With Arthur Ollman, curator of the exhibition & Whitney Richardson Global Events Manager New York Times.

Every Saturday at 3pm
24.11 (FR), 01.12 (ENG), 08.12 (LU), 15.12 (ENG), 22.12 (FR), 29.12 (ENG), 05.01.2019 (LU), 12.01.2019 (FR), 19.01.2019 (ENG), 26.01.2019 (FR).
 
 
 
FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME
 
19.11.2018 - 6:30pm
Bearing Witness: Five New York Times Photojournalists
Illustrated talk by Arthur Ollman, curator of the exhibition
Arthur Ollman, curator of the exhibition, has been a photographer for 53 years. He has had more than 25 one- person exhibitions in museums and galleries worldwide.  He has been part of more than 60 group exhibitions and his art is in many museums and both private and corporate collections. 
In 1983 he became the founding Director of the Museum of Photographic Arts, in San Diego, serving there for 23 years. He curated and organized more than 100 exhibitions. They have been seen in 9 countries and many great museums. He built a permanent museum collection of more than 7,000 objects and a research library of 27,000 volumes. He has written all or parts of 25 books, and numerous articles.
From 2006 to 2011 he directed The School of Art, Design and Art History at San Diego State University.  He is an Emeritus Professor of Art History and Photography at the same institution.  
 From 2012 to the present Ollman has been the Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography, an international organization based in Paris and Minneapolis, which creates and circulates major exhibitions, accompanied by beautiful catalogues, to museums on five continents.  
This talk concerns the work of the five New York Times photographers represented in the exhibition, but also covering a bit of the history of the reality and the lies surrounding accusations of "fake news." It will also try to clarify how and why photography is so useful for propaganda and one possible solution.
 
Auditorium Cité - 3 rue Genistre L-1623 Luxembourg, free
 
14.01.2019 - 6:30pm
Table ronde
Comment l'image façonne l'actualité ? Débat sur la photographie dans les médias
Les photojournalistes du New York Times qui ont réalisé ces images comptent parmi les plus grands à exercer cette profession. Leur travail est empreint d'art, d'intelligence et de persévérance. Ils risquent parfois tout pour faire ces prises de vue, entièrement dévoués aux personnes et à leurs histoires.

Ce débat invite le public à comprendre la place prépondérante de l'image à travers le prisme des médias luxembourgeois :
Pourquoi les médias ont-ils besoin des images ? Comment s'effectue véritablement leur sélection ? Quels critères esthétiques, éthiques ou techniques font ce qu'on appelle une "bonne" image ? Qu'est ce qui va ensuite influer leur réception, leur lecture et leur mise à distance par le public ? Comment apprécier leur intérêt, leur qualité, et leur propos ? Voici quelques questions qui seront discutées par Gian Maria Tore, spécialiste des médias et de l'image avec les représentants de plusieurs médias luxembourgeois.

Intervenants : 
Christian Aschman - Rédacteur photo au Luxemburger Wort et photographe 
Josée Hansen - Journaliste, critique d'art, auteure et responsable des pages culture de d'Lëtzebuerger Land 
Mike Koedinger - Fondateur et Président de Maison Moderne 
?Jean-Lou Siweck - Rédacteur en chef du Tageblatt

Auditorium Cité - 3 rue Genistre L-1623 Luxembourg, entrée libre, en français


21.01.2019 - 6:30pm
Les rendez-vous de l'UNESCO
Through the Looking Glass - Geschicht an Iwwerleeungen zum Thema Fraen a Fotojournalismus - Françoise Poos
 
En luxembourgeois, entrée libre
Auditorium Cité - 3 rue Genistre L-1623 Luxembourg


Photo © Tomas Munita for The New York Times