Photo essay Photojournalism

by Lizzie Sadin

8th edition of the Carmignac photojournalism Award Saatchi Gallery, London 15 May until 15 June 2018

The 8th edition of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award, chaired by Monique Villa, CEO of Thomson Reuters Foundation and Founder of Trust Women, is dedicated to modern slavery and the trafficking of women. The laureate, French photographer Lizzie Sadin, worked on the trafficking of women and girls in Nepal, from prostitution to enslavement. Her photo reportage will be on show at the Saatchi Gallery from 16 May to 15 June 2018. After the devastating 2015 earthquake that killed 9,000 people and displaced 650,000 others, the lives of many Nepalese have been shattered. Unemployment and the precarity of living conditions have risen dramatically since then, leading to an increase in trafficking, notably of women. While in Nepal, photographer Lizzie Sadin explored how the trafficking and forced prostitution of women are not only a result of economic poverty but also a consequence of social and cultural practices. Sadin met some Nepalese women who experience violations of their fundamental rights on a daily basis. They have little hope to pursue higher education and almost no control over their own destiny and future. Trafficked women live in fear of regular physical and psychological abuse as well as symbolic violence, which are sometimes perpetrated by family members themselves. The current social context, which defines women as being inferior to and dependent on men, and its underlying values, needs evolving for human rights violations to stop in Nepal.

Lizzie Sadin for Fondation Carmignac