Lucy Johnson reports: This week ‘A Different Take On Darfur’ is highlighted on the Isle of Wight with photographer Jon Nicholson’s Exhibition at Dimbola Lodge.

The ‘for one week only’ exhibition by Jon (pictured) finishes this Sunday, 20th April, spotlights the recent news and the continuing oppression in Darfur.

Photographer Jon, perhaps, best known for his work photographing the Grand Prix teams, last year, joined officials from the UNFPA to record life at refugee camps in the war-torn region of Darfur, in North Africa.

Jon’s aim was to take photographs he thought would bring a new perspective on the conflict.

In the Olympus Gallery at Dimbola the focus is on Jon’s imagery of Darfur and the plight of the people there, most of whom are refugees who have walked hundreds of miles across hot and barren lands in search of safety from rebel militias.

This photographic journey has been covered in a very different way.  Jon cleverly focuses on human attributes to highlight the realities of the region, inspired by women’s journey by foot to get to refugee camps.  Jon photographed the soles of their feet and lined up each one side by side, rather in the manner of Andy Warhols famous images.
 
While the collection does include landscape and full-length portrait shots, the show-stopping images focus on specific areas of the refugees’ bodies the feet, the hands, the eyes and the mouth.

Commenting on his experiences working in Darfur, Jon said:

“Hijackings of vehicles on the roads, attacks on camps it’s coming at you from all sides, it’s a very nervous place and the sensation that something can happen at any time anywhere is scary”.

Olympus is sponsoring the ‘for one week only’ exhibition of work produced by Jon Nicholson of which Maurice Broomfield (pictured), kindly gave up the space of his current exhibition, ‘Crossing Over’ for such a worthy cause.

Jon’s images have already been shown at the Women Deliver conference and plans are afoot to show the exhibition in Liverpool in 2008 to mark the Holocaust Memorial Day.

Sadly, Darfur is seldom out of the news since the conflict began in the region of western Sudan in 2003, over 200,000 people have been killed and more than two million displaced.

To view Jon’s interactive exhibition, “Images from Darfur,” or to find out more about how you can help the women of Darfur, click here:

Jon’s Gallery click here: Please note: Jon’s “A Different Take On Dafur” exhibition finishes this Sunday 20th April: Dimbola is open 10am to 5pm.

Images © Lucy Johnson.

Isle of Wight Community News @Island Pulse.

: Friday : April 18th, 2008 at 3:24 pm.