On display at SIG Gallery, Pont de la Machine, through June 30 and outdoors at Quai Wilson from August 31 – September 20.

The  “Our World – At War,” exhibit on display at the SIG Gallery, commemorates 150 years of documenting humanitarian disasters and providing assistance, beginning with Henri Dunant’s vivid description of the Battle of Solferino.

It was this battle that prompted Dunant to write “A Memory of Solferino,” and which subsequently spawned creation of the original Geneva Convention, and the International Committee of the Red Cross.  2009 also marks the 60th anniversary since ratification of the subsequent Geneva Conventions for the protection of non-combatants; together, these have effectively become univeral law protecting civilians worldwide.

In recognition of these milestones, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has launched the “Our World. Your Move” campaign to highlight the responsibility of individuals and of the international community, to lessen human suffering globally. As part of the campaign, ICRC collaborated with the humanitarian-minded photo agency, VII, to commission works for the “Our World – At War” exhibit.

However the series of 40 prints, by five award winning war photographers, spanning eight countries, does much more than capture the physical destruction wrought by armed conflict (and in some cases by natural disaster). The pictures successfully convey as well the range of emotion and anguish surrounding the violent disruption of peoples’ lives.

These stories are told largely through portraits capturing human expression, from bewilderment and loss, to the power and joy in a survivor’s reestablishing normality through rehabilitation programs supported by the Red Cross and Red Crescent. The works are beautiful in their own right, and largely narrate themselves; brief anecdotes by the photographers in French and English locate the viewer geographically.