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Saatchi Gallery presents “Libya: A Human Marketplace”, an exhibition by award winning documentary photographer Narciso Contreras (Mexico City, 1975). This report narrates the thoughts and observations of the photojournalist as he has travelled through the complex tribal society of post-Gaddafi Libya, photographing the brutal reality of human trafficking. |
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Displayed throughout 32 photographs, Contreras unfolds the humanitarian crisis in which illegal migrants, refugees and asylum seekers are at the mercy of militias who exploit them for financial gain. Held in detention centres for illegal migrants, they are subjected to inhumane conditions including overcrowding, lack of sanitation and vicious beatings. Throughout this report, Contreras weaves a compelling narrative to show how, instead of being a place of transit for migrants on their way to Europe, Libya has actually become a trafficking market where people are bought and sold on a daily basis. |
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Contreras was the winner of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award with the aim of funding and promoting an investigative photo report on human rights violations each year. The winner receives a €50,000 grant to produce an in-depth essay. After it has been completed, the Carmignac Foundation provides further support, including an international touring exhibition that begins in Paris. Judge Brett Rogers declares that, “Contreras was chosen by the jury for the urgent yet compassionate nature of his photographic vision”. With his exhibition, “Libya: A Human Marketplace” Contreras tries to bring international audiences closer to the unknown issues of the humanitarian crisis suffered in Libya. Since 2010 he has been covering a variety of issues and topics in Southern Asia and the Middle East, leading him to focus his work on the humanitarian cost of conflicts, economics and wars. Narciso’s work in Syria was awarded one of the Pulitzer Prizes in 2013. He has contributed to magazines and media outlets around the globe, such as TIME Magazine, The Guardian, The New York Times and Paris Match amongst others. He is currently photographing the migrants’ crisis in North Africa as part of a long-term project of documentation based on the worldwide conceived phenomenon of a “massive human displacement”. |
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