Exhibition Introduction

Amy Schlegel, Director of Galleries and Collections,
Aidekman Arts Center, Tufts University

Questions without Answers, a major exhibition co-organized by the Tufts University Art Gallery, Tufts’ Institute for Global Leadership, and VII Photo Agency, presents a wide range of photographs that portray defining moments of the post-Cold War period and their aftermaths. From the Fall of the Berlin Wall and September 11, 2001, to Iraq and Afghanistan, the Balkans and Congo, Chechnya and Gaza, among other conflict zones, this timely, landmark exhibition features 125 photographs by 16 photographers affiliated with the renowned VII Photo Agency, newly printed for the occasion, many displayed for the first time. Also included is one Oscar-nominated short docudrama by Antonin Kratochvil.

The participating photojournalists collectively embody the tradition of concerned photography. Their mission is to “document conflict -- environmental, social and political, both violent and nonviolent -- to produce an unflinching record of the injustices created and experienced by people caught up in the events the [photographs] describe.” While most VII photographers have worked in combat zones, they also transcend the by-now conventional role of the war photographer as neutral witness to historical events. The work of VII Photo Agency extends the legacy of concerned photography to the quieter moments of everyday life during war, after crisis or natural disaster, and in the face of slower moving disasters such as environmental devastation, pandemics, and exacerbated poverty. VII Photo Agency’s independence from media outlets ensures that the individual photographers’ visions and passions remain paramount. Questions without Answers balances powerful, poignant images of conflict with images of people contending with challenging living conditions.

The exhibition is organized according to four thematic rubrics that are ordered to create a prismatic effect, from focalized events to refractions over space and time. It does not purport to offer a comprehensive, world history nor a linear trajectory of the past 25 years, though several of the VII photographers have been active that long.

The first rubric, Endless War, focuses on two pivotal events of the Post-Cold War period, the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the fall of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, and the two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq initiated in response to terrorist attacks of 2001. The second rubric, Never Again. . . , deals with the violent repercussions of the end of the Cold War in the Balkans, Chechnya, Congo, and the Middle East. The third rubric, Displays of Power, is a disparate aggregate of images spanning the past few decades and several continents that examines the many ways in which VII photographers have contended with the manifestations of power and powerlessness. The fourth and final rubric, Lives in the Balance, visualizes the struggle for survival in the face of catastrophic natural disasters (such as the 2004 Asian tsunami and contemporary Haiti), insidious environmental poisoning and destruction, endemic, pervasive poverty, and health pandemics such as AIDS.

We would like to thank the staff of VII, especially director Stephen Mayes and agency co-founder Gary Knight for their spirited collaboration and engagement throughout the planning process, and Canon for its partial in-kind production support. We would also like to thank the staff of the IGL, particularly Director Sherman Teichman and Associate Director Heather Barry, for their commitment to excellence through collaboration. We also gratefully acknowledge Rick and Patti Wayne and the Kenneth A. Aidekman Family Foundation in supporting the annotated exhibition guide and related educational programming. Last but by no means least, we are supremely grateful to all of the participating VII principle and network photographers for their cooperation with the image selection and production process. We also gratefully acknowledge Rebecca Alperstein of the James Nachtwey Studio for all of her assistance. The exhibition design and the annotated guide were conceived by Doug Bell, Preparator and Registrar at the Tufts University Art Gallery, and the printed guide was designed by Jeanne Koles.