‘A photograph allows us to really stare’: new Brussels exhibition documents modern human slavery, ahead of EU Parliament debate

A new photography exhibition examining modern slavery opened this week in Brussels – ahead of European Parliament discussions on fresh strategies against such human trafficking. In the Nepalese mountains, a woman comes back to her village with jewellry and shining trinkets, giving the appearance of wealth. She promises local kids jobs in Kathmandu. “The whole village supports the kids going…. What they didn’t know is she was trafficked,” Lisa Kristine, an American photographer profiling human trafficking victims, told EUobserver. The “Slavery: Stories of the Present” exhibition opened on Thursday (5 November) in Géopolis, a city-supported photo-journalism museum in Brussels. It features works of two photographers focusing on modern slavery around the world and on women and girls in rural Afghanistan, often forced to marry in their early teens. About 50 million people were enslaved as of 2022, with some 27 million in forced labour, and 22 million married against their will, according to the International Labour Organisation data. The number grew by 10 million since 2016. Many are sold off to pay for family debts, others are lured with false promises of good job conditions. In the EU alone, at least 880,000 people are forced to work, including 270,000 being sex-trafficked. Photography, argues Kristine, one of the two photographers whose works make up the exhibition, is a good method of raising awareness on the topic: contrary to statistics or even an eye-to-eye encounter, “a photograph allows for us to really stare.” This way, the viewer can take the time to see the other person and open up to empathy. “The issue is rather abstract, full of data… but when you actually see a human being, it speaks more to your heart,” Kristine told EUobserver. Pictures by the other photographer, Élise Blanchard, show Afghan girls and women, whose families have often lost their herding grounds or could no longer farm on their land as a result of climate change. Selling their daughters for marriage is a way out of family debts. “I’m not trying to frighten somebody or overwhelm somebody with something horrific…” she said, highlighting the human dignity she tries to show through her portraits.