Stunning day. As J says, it's a shame to go inside, but there are two exhibitions we want to see at the Imperial War Museum. Stop at Trafalgar on the way. Our UK bank is there and confirms that the bank card has been mailed out. Current one expires at the end of the month. The replica Palmyra arch is on display now, attracting plenty of sightseers.
On to the War Museum. Thefirst exhibition we're here for is photographs by Nick Danziger. It's on the theme of women facing war and features pictures of 11 women that he photographed about 2001 and then returned ten years later to see how they had fared. We'd heard him speak on BBC5 - so compelling that I'd found the program I'd heard in the middle of the night and replayed it for J. Quite a remarkable man, Danziger. He had been a photo journalist, always on the road and often in war zones, and had found he had to protect three young victims of war in Afghanistan, eventually adopting them rather than abandoning them. As the UK did not allow single parent adoptions at the time, he ended up making a home in Monaco, which was accommodating and helpful. This exhibit includes a short film featuring each of the eleven women - or more accurately ten women and a girl, fulfilling the rôle of a woman as she tries to feed and protect her two younger brothers after her mother died and her father abandoned them, sometimes reduced to eating grass - and what then, she asks, sand? From Israel and Palestine to Bosnia to Africa and Afghanistan, he finds them all, except for the young girl, who he believes has died. There's a short but moving film sponsored by the International Red Cross about the women accompanying the photographs. Often sad and occasionally inspiring. A profound anti-war statement.
And the next gallery presents an equally profound and even more un-nuanced message. It features the work of Peter Kennard, "unofficial war artist," with mixed media works, posters and collages covering decades and protesting the means and results of war. Sometimes bitter, sometimes witty, sometimes clever.
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