Living with Land Mines is an exhibition designed to raise awareness of the human and economic suffering caused by land mines, which affect one-third of the world’s nations. Sixteen life-size portraits of Cambodian child survivors form the exhibit, on display until Oct. 16 at the University of Alberta Rutherford Library South Foyer.
Living with Land Mines is an exhibition designed to raise awareness of the human and economic suffering caused by land mines, which affect one-third of the world’s nations. Sixteen life-size portraits of Cambodian child survivors form the exhibit, on display until Oct. 16 at the University of Alberta Rutherford Library South Foyer
by V. Tony Hauser

Upon being confronted with people who suffer from seemingly overwhelming adversity, my first reaction is often a sense of helplessness. I feel helpless because I’m not a medicine man or a priest, capable of mending a body or saving a soul. I’m a photographer. All I do is observe the world around me, and most often I seek to find beauty in everything at which I point my camera.

On average, three Cambodians are injured or killed by land mines every day. Many - including the persons looking at us from these panels - are children and young adults. They were born, like you and me, to parents who had the same hopes and aspirations for their children as we have for ours.

Unless we can convince politicians and governments in Canada and the rest of the world that land mine use must be stopped and mine fields must be cleared, we are inadvertently contributing to the devastation of human lives for many more generations everywhere.