While shooting in war zones, cameramen often zoom in on civilians. The faces flash by on our television screens, leaving viewers wondering what will happen to these hostages of fortune.
Apparently the photographers wonder, too. In 2001 Nick Danziger took photos for the International Committee of the Red Cross of women in half a dozen war zones, and 10 years later, tracked 11 of them down.
Their stories are the focus of the exhibition Eleven Women Facing War at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa opening Feb. 8.
The women include Olija, whose spouse was killed in Kosovo, double amputee Mariata from Sierra Leone but living now in Toronto, leg amputee Nasrin and orphan Mah Bibi of Afghanistan and Flora, who lost 17 members of her family to the genocide in Rwanda.
The exhibit runs until April 21. For those who can’t get to Ottawa, here’s a brief video in French and a there’s a book of the photos, Onze femmes face à la guerre.
