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The video installation of photographer Tomas van Houtryve's "Traces of Exile" reporting project is on display at the International Center of Photography Museum in New York from January 27, 2017 to May 7, 2017, as part of the group exhibition Perpetual Revolution: The Image and Social Change.
In "Traces of Exile" van Houtryve explores how refugees' lives differ from Western media outlets in their online presence. Van Houtryve uses a technique, inspired by an augmented reality app, that layers his video footage with geo-tagged social media posts made by refugees to the show the intersection of their identities and the places they are living and traveling through.
Perpetual Revolution: The Image and Social Change continues ICP’s tradition of exploring the social and historic impact of visual culture.
"This exhibition proposes that an ongoing revolution is taking place politically, socially, and technologically, and that new digital methods of image production, display, and distribution are simultaneously both reporting and producing social change," ICP said describing the exhibition.
#BlackLivesMatter, gender fluidity, climate change, terrorist propaganda, the right wing-fringe and the 2016 election, and the refugee crisis are all issues presented in this exhibition.
For more information about this exhibit and to purchase tickets, visit ICP's website.
Richard B. Wooward reviewed Tomas' work, and the larger exhibit at the ICP for the Wall Street Journal. On "Traces of Exile" he wrote:
"Following the trail of Instagram posts by refugees from Afghanistan and the Middle East as they made their way toward Europe, the Paris-based photographer found the places they had left, where they had found safe harbor, or where they were detained, often on Greek islands. His 15-minute video combines his enhanced widescreen landscapes with their tiny selfies.
A poignant record of the gamble desperate people will take, and of the longing to stay connected with home—many self-portraits feature the Mediterranean as a backdrop—the images also underscore how much social media is shaping personal identity. Given a choice, most refugees embarking for unknown destinations would carry a cellphone rather than a passport."
Perpetual Revolution: The Image and Social Change
January 27, 2017 - May 7, 2017
ICP Museum
250 Bowery
New York, NY 10012