AUGUSTA — The Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine will host an open house and discussion of two powerful exhibits Thursday, Feb. 28.
The open house will be from 5 to 7 p.m., with a program beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the Michael Klahr Center, 46 University Drive.
The exhibits include “40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World” and “Witness to War: The Children of Syria.” The open house is free and open to the public.
“40 Chances” is created by Howard G. Buffet in partnership with the Newseum, in Washington, D.C., and will be on display through March 22. The process of photographing the effects of hunger throughout the world also inspired a best-selling book by the same title. To learn more about the exhibit, visit www.newseum.org/exhibits/traveling/40-chances-finding-hope-in-a-hungry-world/. Indira Williams Babic, the director of photography and virtual resources at the Newseum will discuss the exhibit and how they were created.
Babic oversees the research, acquisition, digital processing, rights management and preservation of the Newseum’s collection of more than 500,000 historic images. She has managed and curated all images that have appeared in Newseum exhibits since the museum opened in its current location in 2008, including the original 14 galleries and more than 35 changing exhibits.
“Witness to War: The Children of Syria” features photographs of Syrian journalist Bassam Khabieh, who began his work as a photographer in his home town of Douma and the Damascus suburbs in 2011, covering demonstrations and funerals. He considers his first official assignment coverage of the chemical attack in the Eastern Ghouta near Damascus in August 2013.
“I woke up that morning, and headed towards medical points to see tens of dead bodies. I saw a little baby among them,” he recalled. “When I approached her there was no blood or injuries, she looked like she was sleeping among dead bodies. I took pictures of her and left for the sites bombed by the chemical attack. It was a horrible moment entering deserted neighborhoods where many residents had been killed by chemical weapons. I saw cats and dogs too, laying on the ground, and dead sheep in farms. I saw and smelt the stench of death.”
The exhibit documents the death and destruction of Syria that has caused millions to become refugees.
Khabieh was the Oak Institute Fellow in fall 2018. He has returned to his family in Turkey, but Oak Institute Director Valerie M. Dionne will be on hand to discuss the exhibit and Khabieh’s work. Dionne is an associate professor of French at Colby College.
For more information, call 207-621-3530 or email infohhrc@maine.edu.
PHOTO: An image from the “Witness to War: The Children of Syria,” exhibit featuring the work of Syrian jouralist Bassam Khabieh. (Submitted photo)
