CityLife

Interview: Sean Sutton (Surviving The Conflict - IWMN)

Children in Cambodia (Sean Sutton)

Regular visitors to the Imperial War Museum North will be familiar with Sean Sutton’s work. A small number of the powerful black and white portraits in his Surviving The Conflict collection went on display outside the gallery last year – their impact quite literally heightened by their five metre high display cases.

A constantly growing collection, Surviving The Conflict gets another outing in the region from Thursday when the organisation Sean works for, the Manchester-based Mines Advisory Group (MAG), opens a follow-up show at the Chips Building in New Islington, off Great Ancoats.

The venue, says MAG, was chosen because it is a backdrop that echoes the importance of development seen in Sean’s work. Set among relics of Manchester’s industrial past, Sean’s images illustrate how people strive to build new lives and safer futures.

During his 20-year career with MAG, Sean has visited some of the world’s most notorious war zones: from Kosovo and Iraq to the Sudan and Burma. His images focus on people affected by landmines, specifically on the disruption to their lives and the efforts they go to to live with and clear the landmines.

Just as the display cases outside the Imperial War Museum enhanced the images, so too does Sean’s new exhibition. “It is made up of free-standing columns and L-shapes and is designed to make a room within a room,” Sean explains. “The exterior panels display large graphics and large images and the interior surfaces are designed to feel like a classic bespoke photographic exhibition.”

Split in two sections, the installation depicts scenes of conflict, disrupted lives and munition remnants in the first half and solutions and outcomes in the second.

“This is the good news,” says Sean. “This is all about the different aspects of MAG’s work, such as education programmes to help people live safer, landmine clearance, weapons destruction and life for people after clearance where people have been able to rebuild their lives and other organisations have been able to help build schools and drill water wells.

“There are so many issues and problems caused by conflict and the effects on communities are catastrophic. Some of the most serious problems blocking change after war, after the guns have fallen silent, are caused by the unexploded detritus.  It has been difficult to spend so much time amongst so much despair and destruction but I have always been amazed at the spirit of people and their ability to lift themselves up and overcome despair.

“It is certainly not all gloom out there. And that is what I hope people will feel viewing these images. Positive change is indeed possible, and we can all be part of it.

“I hope the exhibition will bring people a little closer to some of the issues millions of people face on a daily basis around the world and, most importantly, with a little help, whole communities can flourish and come back to life.”

Chips Building, Lampwick Lane, New Islington. Access to the exhibition with a member of MAG available on request from May 20 via comms@maginternational.org or 0161 238 5485, then open access every Saturday from May 29 to July 17, 2010. Free.