Spread around Kensington and Chinatown are 20 large black and white photos taken by a number of freelance photojournalists who are part of a group called #Dysturb. One of their goals is to present photojournalism in new ways, including as street art, with the aim of engaging people and encouraging discussion of global issues. The images are part of an exhibit for the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.
Kensington has had a problem with taggers for a while. Often street art gets vandalized in that area. The #Dysturb photo that was at 56 Kensington (under Mona Lisa) has already been torn down and a couple of others have been ripped.
Pictures of some of the images that are part of the exhibit are shown below. I have included a partial transcription of the words that accompany each picture.
Libyan Coasts, August 1, 2015
Photo by Christophe Stramba-Badiali/Haytham
West African migrants are seen aboard a boat, approximately 20 nautical miles off the Libyan coast, as they are about to be rescued by Medecins Sans Frontieres. The MSF-hired ship, named Argos, was patrolling the waters off Libya when it encountered one rubber dinghy carrying a total of 111 migrants including several children and infants. “
Barpak, Ghorka District, Nepal, May 9, 2015 ”
Photo by Renaud Philippe/Hans Lucas
Children play in a cloud of dust and gravel thrown by an Indian army helicopter landing in Barpak Nepal. The community is at the epicenter of the devastating earthquake that struck April 25, 2015, taking over 8000 lives. Of Barpak’s 1400 houses, only 20 remain standing. The rest of the town is a pile of rubble that blends into the rocky landscape. An archway that somehow survived the quake greets visitors with a rueful ‘Welcome to Barpak’.”
Shaanxi Province, Henan, China, February 27, 2014
Photo by Sim Chi Yin/Vii
Gold miner, He Quangui, battling silicosis, struggles to breathe while cradled in the hands of his wife Mi Shixiu. After many attempts to stabilize his breathing, in the early hours of the next morning her tried to kill himself to end the suffering. He contracted the irreversible disease working in illegal gold mines in China’s Henan province. He is among some six million workers in China who have pneumoconiosis – the country’s most prevalent occupational disease.”
Cizre Turkey, October 30, 2015.
Photo by Emilien Urbano/Myop for Le Monde
NOTE: I took this picture on Friday. Today (Monday) it was gone.
A militiaman from the PKK Youth wing YDG-H in Cizre Turkey. The Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H) – the militant youth wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – are battling to defend their neighbourhoods from Turkish security forces. The YDG-H has been acting as a paramilitary force in Cizre for the past few months and has closed off several Kurdish neighbourhoods with their armed checkpoints and patrols.
Fort McKay, Alberta, Canada, August 12, 2015
Photo by Ian Willms/Boreal Collective
Dez, 7, plays in his bed. Dez was born with an underdeveloped heart and has received multiple open heart surgeries. His family and healthcare professionals in Fort McKay believe that his condition was caused by environmental pollution. Fort McKay is an indigenous community that is surrounded by oil sands developments.”
Kunduz City, Afghanistan, November 18, 2015.
Photo by Andrew Quilty/Oculi
Najibah tries to comfort her daughter Zahara, 8, as they weep over the grave of their husband and father, Baynazar. Baynazar, 43, was wounded by gunfire on his way home fromwork during the Taliban takeover of Kunduz in late 2015. He was taken to the nearby Doctors Without Borders (MSF) trauma centre. In the early hours of October 3, during his second operation, a US AC-130 aircraft attacked the hospital for more than half an hour, killing 43 MSF staff, patients and nurses. Dozens more were wounded.
#CONTACT16
as I walk Toronto 