Human rights artivism
Some works exist to decorate. Others exist to document, to remember, to question, to bear witness. My background creating human rights exhibitions and documentary projects taught me that presentation should support meaning rather than compete with it. That same principle shapes how I frame documentary photography, activism art and historically significant work.
Taken on Palm Sunday, 9 April 2017, at Lalibela's rock-hewn churches. I later returned to Ethiopia's story through the Remember Tigray VR documentary, made after conflict broke out in the north. This photograph is an earlier, quieter memory of the country.
The olive mount and weathered green moulding draw from the vegetation pilgrims carry and the surrounding stone, without competing with the white ceremonial dress.
Taken on 16 November 2017 from a UN helicopter, during my time with the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM), 2017 to 2018. Mogadishu is usually pictured through conflict; from the air it's neighbourhoods, coastline, the ordinary shape of a city.
A clean white mount gives the image room. The deep blue moulding draws on the Indian Ocean below.
Taken on 7 September 2023, eighteen months after Russia's full-scale invasion began, while I was in Bucha for Witness: Crimes Against Ukraine's Humanity, a VR project. A representative from the Office of the Prosecutor General later arranged a tour of the town, led by a police officer and war crimes investigator, as part of the same project.
The sunflower, Ukraine's national flower, carries a different weight in a place so tied to the war. The charcoal mount and muted yellow moulding stay restrained, echoing the mural without pulling focus.
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Ryan Xavier