CURRENT EXHIBITION

THE POWER OF FACTS

Anja Niedringhaus, 1965-2014

“The Power of Facts” is a selection of images from a decade and a half documenting the war and destruction, the challenges, the resilience and the courage of those in the middle.

A powerful journey with iconic images captured by Anja Niedringhaus from different parts of the world. Moments in time recorded in history. Among these moments is a scene of a man smoking a cigar in a destroyed bus that once served as an anti-sniper barricade in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995. A U.S. Marine carries a G. I. Joe mascot in his backpack for good luck as his unit advances further into the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2004. A Canadian soldier chases a chicken just before he and his unit are attacked by shells during a patrol near Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2010; Palestinian teenagers enjoying a ride at an amusement park in Gaza City, Palestine in 2006; and a Libyan rebel urging people to leave as shelling from Gadhafi’s forces landed on the front line east of Sirte, Libya in 2011. As well as other moments from Albania, Kuwait and Pakistan.

Anja Niedringhaus, my best friend whom I met 20 years ago in December 2003 in Baghdad, Iraq and said goodbye to in April 2014 in Kabul, Afghanistan. A dear friend, a colleague and above all the nicest person and the best storyteller whose mission was to do justice to the people she photographs.

I am honored and humbled to be the curator of “The Power of Facts” for the official opening of Forum Anja Niedringhaus in Höxter, Germany. The Forum will be the home of photojournalism, documentary photography and culture. The place that will help and empower future visual storytellers and most importantly decorate the testimonies and stories behind my best friend’s iconic images on her own walls that will live on forever for generations to come.

Deep in my heart is this quote from Anja, following in her footsteps I firmly believe that there is no better way to make a difference than photography.

Muhammed Muheisen