Exhibition on Global Poverty "Blight and Hope: Poverty Seen Through the Lens"

O Venue: Korean Cultural Centre UK, Ground Floor, Grand Buildings, 1-3 Strand, London WC2N 5BW
O Exhibition Dates: 21 October 2008 - 4 November 2008
O Participating Artists: Peter Bialobrzeski, Marcus Bleasdale, Heidi Bradner, Paula Bronstein, Seihon Cho, Agnes Dherbeys, Myung Duck Joo, Jea-Uk Kang, Stephanie Kuykendal, Christopher LaMarca, Yao Lu, Simon Norfolk, Sang Taek Oh, Jong-Woo Park, Nam-Hun Sung, Andrew Testa

An international photography exhibition on the topic of global poverty will be held at the Korean Cultural Centre UK, from 21 October to 4 November 2008, under the title of "Blight and Hope: Poverty Seen Through the Lens," hosted by the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and organized by the Korea Foundation. The exhibition is supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the British Council, the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), and a broad spectrum of other organizations spanning both the private and public sectors.

The exhibition is a powerful mix of photography that aims to carry a strong message on poverty to a wider audience. The exhibition showcases contributions from sixteen prominent photographers from countries such as China, Germany, Korea, Norway, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The artists focus on the subject in many different ways - sometimes with a scientific and methodological mind, other times with raw emotions, ruthlessly exposing poverty'smany faces.

Poverty is both a cause and result of war, disease, environmental degradation, alienation and victimization, and many other afflictions faced by humankind. Nevertheless, we can discover hope by acting decisively against poverty and envisioning an ideal world.

The international community made a concerted commitment to promote global efforts to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger eight years ago, when it came up with the Millenium Development Goals(MDGs). 2008 marks the mid-point at which we must determine how far we are from these Goals. We hope that the exhibit, the brainchild of a global partnership between artists, policymakers, academics, and many other stakeholders, will generate deeper awareness of poverty and constitute a small step in the efforts to reach the Goals.

"Poverty threatens our security and even our lives, destroys communities, and undermines cultures and traditions, freedom and human dignity. Sixteen photographers from all over the world expose the cruel faces of poverty while at the same time presenting a vision of hope."
: Yu Myung-hwan, the Mister of Foreign Affairs and Trade

"This exhibition comes at a time when all our collective efforts are needed to achieve the MDGs. Exhibitions like this one allow us all to connect on a human level to the people behind the MDGs, and remind us of the importance of keeping our promises to them."
: Kemal Derviş, the UNDP Administrator