Afew days after the war broke out in South Sudan, a lady fled the village with her husband and several men. The men were killed, while the woman was shot and left for dead. A boy from the opposing tribe put her in a wheelbarrow and ran hundreds of kilometres to the nearest town, where she received help. That’s just one story being showcased by Australian photojournalist Ilana Rose at her exhibition Strength In Adversity, showing at Australia’s premier photography festival, Head On, this month.
Rose has been a freelance photojournalist for 20 years. During this time, her career has veered away from capturing youth culture and towards social justice. She has worked with The Big Issue, government departments such as Women’s Affairs and Human Services, the Indigenous Unit in Melbourne, the Victorian Police, and countless welfare organisations. Rose’s interest in documenting the unseen led her to World Vision.
Since joining the organisation at the start of 2012, Rose has taken photographs for major campaigns in Ethiopia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Indonesia, Zimbabwe, India, Sri Lanka, Peru, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda.
On her first assignment in Samre, Ethiopia, Rose met a women named Teye. Teye showed Rose examples of the love and strength she needed to protect her children. It was this force and endurance that initially inspired the current exhibition.
“Strength In Adversity is about women; their courage, passion and stories. But women don’t stand alone – there is always a community, children and families involved,” Rose says.
“I was in Uganda in January and South Sudan last year, so I got to see what happens in war-torn countries – people trying to escape the trauma, dead bodies everywhere and women who need to get their families to safety. No matter what their circumstances, they have to survive so they can do the best for their families. This is where women come into force – in a time of need. They are community-builders; they look after economical developments, nutrition, child health and much more.”
As the themes suggest, Strength In Adversity is a thought-provoking exhibition that profiles women holding their families and communities together in even the harshest of circumstances. Although the images on show present people from certain countries, the pivotal idea behind the exhibition is to demonstrate the strength of women universally.
The photographer knows this exhibition will display a different viewpoint to those usually seen in World Vision campaign images. “Some of these photos are harshly different to what we see in World Vision brochures; they can be dark and sometimes hard to see. The dignity is very visible.”
Nonetheless, Rose doesn’t want the harshness of this topic to scare people away, as such an opportunity to view important images concerning social justice is uncommon. “The chance to show this type of social justice to a wide audience is amazing,” she says. “It is incredibly rare to get these kinds of images shown in galleries around Australia. Head On is an incredible platform for self-expression and to tell these stories.
Strength In Adversityshows at The Depot Gallery, Waterloo, until Saturday May 30.
