Ancillary
exhibition to Act of Faith
The Iranian-born
photographer Abbas (1944) made his name with the book La Révolution Confisquée
(1980) in which he reported on the revolution in his native land. Since 1981 he
has been connected with the famous photo agency Magnum. About the same time he
started on his intensive and world-encompassing report on religions and the
role of faith in social life. One result of this project was his 1994 book
Allah O Akbar, A Journey through Militant Islam. Speaking of the exhibition
Children of Abraham - also the title of his most recent book - Abbas says:
"From 1978 to
1980 I cover the Iranian Revolution, then for seven years, from 1987 to 1993 I
travel the land
of Muslims. From Sinkiang
to Morocco, from London to Timbuktu,
visiting New York and Mecca, I photograph the daily lives of
Muslims, the rituals of their faith, their spirituality as well as the
emergence of Islamism, its fanaticism and its violence. Driven by a desire to
understand the internal tensions at work within Muslim societies, I expose the
conflict between a rising political ideology looking for inspiration in a
mythical past and the universal desire for modernity and democracy. This work
achieved, for six years, from 1995 to the year 2000, I photograph Christian
communities throughout the world with the same critical eye. Heralding the dawn
of the "Third Millennium", the year 2000 imposes itself as the
universal calendar and therefore a symbol of Western Civilization: that year
Jews celebrate the year 5760 and Muslims the year 1420. During these journeys,
I also photograph Jews; the children of Abraham, claimed as a common ancestor
by both Christians and Muslims. I gather for the first time the three
monotheist religions into a single exhibition and a catalogue with extracts
from my travel diaries."
