Greer McNally reports back from the other event about the Blood Diamond industry this week.

Tuesday night at the Frontline Club saw Dutch photographer Kadir van Lohuizen host a talk about his work Diamond Matters, a series chronicling the conditions and conflict that surround the highly lucrative diamond business from the mines of South West Africa to the upmarket jewellers of Fifth Avenue. Striking because of his stature, strong eyes and curly hair, van Lohuizen has spent a great deal of his professional life photographing Africa, which is clear in a series of images from the 90s through to the present day.

Above: Carrying gravel out of the mine at Bakwa Bowa, DR Congo. Below: Rough diamond exchange, Antwerp, Belgium.

As the images flashed up in a slideshow presentation, he addressed the room with a genial conviction that gave way to moments of fervent vehemence. The viewer witnessed alluvial miners creating a lunar landscape in their country be it Angola, Sierra Leone or The Democratic Republic of Congo. Stone polishers squirreled away in warehouses in India. Rich socialites draped in elaborate diamond necklaces while naked women acted as hors d’oeuvre plates in the background. Some images were soaked in sadness, others in strength, all provoking a strong reaction from the audience. Some foreshadowed others. A man proudly holding a diamond, which he would be paid ten dollars for at the mine, struck the same pose as a New York jeweller who would sell the same stone for something nearer the thousand dollar mark.

Kadir constantly referred to fellow photojournalist Marcus Bleasdale, whose book One Hundred Years of Darkness covered the brutal conflict within the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo. He spoke of how the two men fled when they realised their lives were in danger and negotiated checkpoints manned by armed teenagers, who could not read. “This was the first time I really got scared by kids” was his comment about one specific image. While he delivered his talk in a storytelling lilt the danger and anger he had experienced haunted his tone.

Towards the end of the evening, the audience were treated to images from the New Orleans project, he’s been working on with fellow Agence Vu alumnus Stanley Greene. Following Hurricane Katrina, the photographer set out to cover the clean up effort, which has been so painfully slow. His anger at the way the government has dealt with the crisis and the changing social democratic of the once great city was clear as he talked about ethnic cleansing and the gang warfare that has seen the death rate rise in a city, which already had the worst crime statistics in the whole of the United States.

He was bombarded with questions throughout, but one that stood out was what change the photographer hoped to achieve with his work. He pondered the question and explained his drive and reasoning, talking about how images of the coffee industry had spurred on fair-trade agreement and how he believed the responsibility lay not with African governments but with the consumer. But the real unasked question should surely be whether it is the photographer’s job to instigate change or to act as a witness so that others can act on what they see.

The exhibition Diamond Matters runs at the Host Gallery until January 27 January.

The Frontline Club is a photojournalist’s hidey-hole tucked away up a set of stairs round the corner from Paddington station. It has a calendar of talks and screenings, which address political matters. For a list of Frontline Club events go to the website. Talks cost £7 and screenings £5 please book before to reserve a place.

Useful Links
www.lohuizen.net
www.hostgallery.co.uk
www.agencevu.com/en
www.frontlineclub.com
www.marcusbleasdale.com

About Kadir van Lohuizen
Born in the Netherlands, van Lohuizen became a professional photographer after being a sailor, a founder of a shelter for drug addicts and the homeless and an activist in the Dutch squatter movement. Since taking to photography he has covered many conflicts in Africa, including Angola, Sierra Leone, Mozambique and Liberia. He worked in the former USSR, Mongolia and North Korea and covered the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. He recently covered the bloody conflict in Darfur and the war in Lebanon. He is the winner of numerous photography awards, including ‘de Zilveren Camera’ for his story on Rwandan refugees in Zaire (1998), the Dick Scherpenzeel prize for his Sierra Leone images (2000) and his project on diamonds (2005) as well as second prize in the Contemporary Issues category of the World Press Photo award.  He also won the prize for Investigative Journalism in Holland and Belgium for his story on the diamond industry.

© Kadir van Lohuizen / Agence VU
Press image to be used in the context of the exhibition DIAMOND MATTERS at HOST gallery, London EC1 from 28 November 2006 to 27 January 2007.
http://www.hostgallery.co.uk

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