Sharjah 24: “When we lose the dignity of others, we lose ourselves,” said celebrated French photojournalist, Frank Fournier, at the sixth edition of Xposure International Photography Festival as he presented some of his most iconic works shot in Europe and America over the decades.

In a poignant presentation titled, ‘The Other’, the French-born septuagenarian who moved to New York City in 1982 to became staff photographer at Contact Press Images, took the audience on an illustrious visual journey with photographs that have stirred societies. 

Well known for his haunting images from the Armero tragedy in Colombia, where a volcanic eruption in 1985 led to a mudslide that killed more than 25,000 people, Fournier shared his portrait of Omayra Sánchez, a 13-year-old girl trapped under the debris of her home. The photo, which won the 1985 World Press Photo award, sent the audience at Xposure 2022 into shocked silence.

“Constant exposure to tragedy shook my understanding of who we are and who I was, forcing me to look for an answer,” said Fournier, detailing how he embarked on an odyssey to reveal a history that he believed, had not occurred in the way he was taught.

In a deeply engrossing session, the photographer shared how he documented everything - from Nicolae Ceaușescu’s rule in Romania and the victims of ethnic and civil wars in Rwanda and Bosnia to a bone-chilling crime in the alleys of New York. He explained these events convinced him to address “the need to know and to share”, no matter how challenging the circumstances surrounding them were.”

Capturing the magic of light
In ‘Momentum of Light’, Dutch photographer Iwan Baan, known for his vivid images that narrate the life and interactions that occur within architecture, showed the magical use of natural light in his works that have included skylines of both New York and Dubai. 

Sharing with the audience a series of photos taken primarily in three towns of Burkino Faso, he said: “In most parts of Africa, sunlight plays a key role in local architecture. It is used to not only create a light source within a building, but also to protect the interior from the intensity of the sun. As a result, such buildings have very few or small openings creating a near pitch-black inside, while the outside is illuminated by direct sunshine.” 

The 47-year-old also showed aerial images of big cities like Miami, Chicago, Kyoto, Tokyo, Sao Paulo and Caracas to illustrate how architectural marvels of a city differed from another. “But it is the modernism of Africa that always fascinated me,” said the photographer, who in 2012, took the image of Manhattan after Hurricane Sandy. That image, which appeared on the cover of New York City magazine, shows part of the city in darkness, while the rest is filled with light and colour, illustrating vividly the storm's contrasting impact.