Every Picture Tells a Story...
By Richard Campbell

Photography Exhibition: Speak Truth to Power
Photographs by Eddie Adams with Interviews by Kerry Kennedy Cuomo
Boston Public Library, Main Exhibition Space

It would be fair to say that many Americans take basic human rights for granted, not simply because the threat to human rights is less severe in our country than in the majority of the world, but because we are not taught to think of distant places where human rights violations occur as integral to our survival. If this is an attitude that is changing, the change would primarily be do to the efforts of people in human rights organizations that have coalesced in the recent years to direct their message primarily at the first world. As American citizens we are constantly reminded that when human rights are violated somewhere around the globe, it impacts everyone on the planet.

The traveling exhibition "Speak Truth to Power" of large format photography by Pulitzer Prize recipient Eddie Adams displayed in the lobby of the Boston Public Library main branch in Copley Square not only reveals the power and beauty of Mr. Adams' artistic vision, but relays a deep emotional message about human rights. There are people of extraordinary courage who have sacrificed a great deal to change the world positively, and that we need to heed their examples, not simply celebrate their individual courage.

The exhibition strikes one at first as an emotional testimony through portraiture, and then gathers strength upon the viewer as one discovers that it not only includes the thirty large format pictures by Adams with commentary by its founder Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, but “Speak Truth to Power” unveils itself as a whole array of politically motivated arts, from the printed book on the exhibit, to a play by Ariel Dorfman, called "Voices From Beyond the Dark," that was performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington with a high profile cast in September, and was videoed by WETA for airing on PBS, to the web site that is set up as an interactive part of the exhibit. One realizes when exploring the web site that "Speak Truth to Power” is an international grass roots organization involving Amnesty International, corporate sponsors, government officials, artisans and citizens in a giant effort to bring light to a global spiritual crisis of human rights violations that in this world of modern communications can no longer be ignored or obscured by anyone who values life. The photographs are a small part of this exhibit, but they are most enduring because they are offered up with their own emotional power and beauty to a cause that is greater than art-the human soul.

The photography is all large format black and white, 30 X 40 inches of silver gelatin prints of original portraits by Eddie Adams, recreated in full glory by New York printer Charles Griffen. They are impressive for their incredible detail, compositional value, and emotional message. The pictures and the captions for the photography "talk" to each other, so that the viewer acquires not just an image of someone known for being a human rights activist, but learns about their personal struggle. Eddie Adams has spanned the globe with project coordinator Kerry Kennedy Cuomo to find people who have defended human rights, choosing people that are well known for their work such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, Oscar Arias Sanchez, the Dalai Lama, and Vaclav Havel, as well as people more obscure but equally powerful, such as Juliana Dogbadzi, Kek Galabru, Freedom Neruda, and Dianna Ortiz.

In the first group of people, the portraits are somewhat more comforting, or predictable, perhaps because we've seen portraits of these people often enough and know their biographies. Elie Wiesel, for example, a holocaust survivor, writer, renowned educator, and Nobel Prize winner from Boston University has appeared in the media. He is shown in a button down check shirt, with a library soft focused in the background, revealing a stillness that belies his tragic background as a survivor who has dedicated his life to keeping governments and individuals honest about the history of this century. Here he appears as a frail man, in a portrait where his head seems oversized and held up almost unnaturally by his arms. But once the viewer locks onto the eyes of his searching expression (I am reminded of portraits of artists done by Irving Penn)- there is something powerfully disturbing about his expression. "No, you won't forget if you have a conscience..." he seems to say, and his expression is echoed in comments below. The same is true to a lesser degree in Oscar Arias Sanchez's case, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, but to me the truly remarkable portraits are the ones of relatively unknown activists, where the element of surprise and discovery plays a more incisive role.

At first glance the portrait of Juliana Dogbadzi, from Ghana reveals a middle aged black women in ceremonial dress of some sort, a dark dress with beautiful hand embroidery, spread out on the floor in a manner that forces the subject to float upon the stark white background. The relaxed gazing into the viewer’s eyes with a somewhat distant expression does not prepare the viewer for the commentary below. One thinks casually of ritual ceremony, when one sees the sub- title to the picture: "Trokosi Shrines", without realizing they aren't quite like the shrines or churches of most of the world. Trokosi, the caption informs one, comes from the word meaning "slave to the gods", and apparently the young girls of Ghana are routinely held captive in the shrines, indeed enslaved to work for priests without pay, are sexually abused in the course of their servitude, which is ordained upon them at an early age in order to "atone for crimes of their relatives". It changes the meaning of picture enormously, so much so that I decided to watch how viewers regarded the portrait depending upon if they read the caption. It was clear the shock of recognition was pretty universal, and those who simply viewed the portrait without reading the caption walked away, perhaps with inkling that there was a story behind this mysterious figure.

The subtle power of this exhibit revealed itself in a similar manner again and again. In the portrait of Dianna Ortiz, an Ursuline nun in contemplation on a bench in a beautiful garden of flowers shows Ms. Ortiz frozen in a serenity and stillness, hands gracefully folded in her lap, as though her soul might be sitting immediately above her physical person, watching over her as she meditates. It is the quiet moment of a person who has suffered greatly but maintains a majesty of spirit unconquerable by the torture she no doubt suffered in Guatemala at the hands of torturers, one of whom appeared to have been an American. Her crime: teaching poor children in the highlands. Freedom Neruda, Editor of La Voie, a writer and journalist from the Ivory Coast who has been tortured, and had his presses shut down with violent arbitrary police actions is seen in a close up portrait that claims a tension between his hands holding a pencil and his face caught glancing with weary internal urgency- in every detail his skin cells reveal the tenacity of a man who has not, and will not, ever give up.

The personal power of the these many facial portraits is fortified by the resolving power of Adam's lens, the depth of the sliver prints, and the larger than life scale. Kek Galabru, a middle aged Cambodian woman physician activist from Phnom Penh who played a role in negotiations that led to the peace accords in 1991 is so described, but it is difficult to read the inscription because her portrait is so powerful that it continually demands your attention. She is posed with her eyes closed, as though trying to erase a bitter memory that will not go away, in front of a wall of skulls. The trophies to the killing fields sit behind her, hauntingly glaring out from a series of shelves, some scarred with identification marks, some seem to be crying out in horror, some sitting mute like anatomical models. Wisps of her hair are blown in front of her face, shaping her skull, and the comparison is not lost- revealing that no small breeze could comfort her, any more than words. I suspect that many people have heard of the world renown human rights activists in the first group, but perhaps the average citizen, not directly involved in the struggle for human rights around the globe will have little recognition of the latter group mentioned. And that, of course, is the great beauty of a show like "Speak Truth To Power".

This exhibition puts a human face on the suffering and struggle around the world by trying to inspire people to action in celebration of the accomplishments of human rights activists. Someone like myself comes to this exhibit first and foremost for the photography, (the web sited does not do justice to the actual photographs) and upon seeing the show, a whole other world is revealed. It is not that I wasn't aware of human rights violations around the world, but it is presented in the traditional media as so unreal. The message of this show is of course it's overwhelming, but it's unfortunately quite real. The challenge is to look at what can be accomplished if someone has the courage to face it. For if these people have had the courage to face torture, imprisonment, rape, wholesale slaughter of their friends, relatives, and neighbors, and they have the courage to speak out, what excuse do Americans have to plug up their ears? There is no place to run and hide after seeing this exhibit, one simply has to roll up the sleeves and join the fight.