“When God wanders the world, at the end of the day he comes to Rwanda to sleep because He considers this to be the most beautiful place on earth.”
- Rwandan folklore saying

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Honorable Mention

'FRACTURED LIVES' the Aftermath of Genocide

Carol Allen Storey | Rwanda

‘FRACTURED LIVES’
the aftermath of war

commissioned by International Alert

© Carol Allen Storey

This photographic essay focuses on the daunting task of rebuilding a fractured society through the eyes of the perpetrators, ex-combatants and survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide along with the vulnerable generation of young Rwandans growing up in an atmosphere clouded by conflict. The visual journal provides a narrative of their daily personal experiences conquering the challenges in their communities that continue to be divided, within a landscape that promotes reconciliation and forgiveness as the engine to nurture a peaceful united prosperous nation.

The aim of this series was to provide a view of the long-term implications of war and, the solutions on the ground to rebuild these fractured lives. Most photographic documentaries illustrating genocide in Rwanda have depicted the victims’ suffering and grief. Few in-depth stories have portrayed the actual every day lives of not only survivors, but also from the perpetrator’s vantage. This series strived to illustrate a more inclusive view and, as importantly, highlight how permanent peace can be achieved.

Artist Statement
Carol Allen Storey

Today we are a ‘WORLD AT WAR’. Extremists maliciously slaughter innocent citizens; their malevolent actions fuelled by ignorance, propaganda and hate. Civilisation is under an apocalypse siege where the war-devil is shadowing peace, a tragic global trend growing exponentially.

International Alert, the peace building NGO has implemented successful programmes for conflict reconciliation. They pioneered the idea that the daunting task of rebuilding the fractured lives post-conflict would have to be holistic – to include all individuals affected by the war. Their programme focuses on uniting a divided fragmented society with an emphasis to address the psychological trauma and the economic void that is omnipresent post conflict. International Alert’s work that I witnessed and photographed in Rwanda was awe inspiring.

My aim is to be an evangelical Peace Photographer, illuminating the positive aspects of building peace which is visually challenging as war is ‘sexy’. The killing fields must end. Peace must be nurtured.

International Alert is an independent peace-building organisation. The organisation works with people who are directly affected by violent conflict to improve their prospects of peace. They are one of the world’s leading peace-building NGOs. To learn more about how and where International Alert works, please visit their website: www.international-alert.org.

 Carol Allen Storey

4 Saint Mark's Crescent

London NW1 7TS

United Kingdom

+44(0)7710 077290

carol@castorey.com

Carol Allen Storey

Carol Allen Storey is an award winning photojournalist specialising in chronicling humanitarian and social issues.

“My images are intimate, about issues and citizens I deeply care about. I believe photographs may not be capable of doing the moral work for us, but they can trigger the process of social consciousness.”

Storey’s work has been exhibited and published internationally. In 2009 she was appointed a UNICEF ambassador. Storey recently won 1st Prize in the Act of Kindness International Award 2013, was a finalist in the Taylor-Wessing Portrait Awards exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in 2009, 2011, and 2013, Kontinent Awards – Finalist documentary project, a finalist for Social Documentary in 2008, 2009 and 2010 at the New York Photography Festival, and in 2008 and 2010 she was selected for the Press Photographer’s Award Year exhibition. Storey has been a nominee finalist at the International Spider Awards each year from 2008 to 2013 . She was shortlisted for the 2011 One Life International Portfolio Award. Commissioned by ’Save the Children’,

Carol created an essay about the dilemma of British children living in poverty for their ‘Our Lives’ exhibition and book. In 2012 Carol was a finalist for the Photocrafti Award. In addition, in 2012 she was selected for the Moving Walls International exhibition touring Europe, and most recently the Royal Photographic society 2013 members exhibition.

Her solo exhibitions include: ‘FRACTURED LIVES’ at SW1 Gallery, London, 2012, for International Alert, ‘Children of Hope’ at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kendal, 2011, for the charity Kasese Street Kids. ‘Anything Is Possible’ at the Association of Photographers Gallery in London, 2009, for the charity Spirituality for Kids. ‘The Vanishing Assets of Africa’, an installation at the Inmarsat Gallery in London, 2008, culminating in an auction by Christi’s benefiting the charity, Télécoms Sans Frontières. ‘The Savagery and Poetry of Africa’ at the Proud Gallery, London, 2004, for the international charity WWF.

For the past six years, Storey has been developing a personal project, ANGELS at the edge of darkness, which illuminates the plight of women and children managing poverty and the AIDS pandemic in Africa.

Storey is a graduate with distinction of the Central St. Martins, Master Photography programme, 2000. She also earned a BA at Syracuse University and her MA at Columbia University.

She is a member of Association of Photographers, British Press Photographers Association (board member), Royal Photographic Society, National Press Photographers Association, and World Photography Academy (founding member)

 

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