Carmignac Photojournalism Award: 'The Trap' by Lizzie Sadin
15 May - 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.

Following Sadin's research in Katmandu and at the India-Nepal border, the exhibition will showcase 8th Laureate Lizzie Sadin's photographs. A monograph of Sadin's works is published by Skira.


About Lizzie Sadin

French photographer Lizzie Sadin has devoted the first ten years of her career to socio-educational issues and has developed a singular outlook to report on the world around her. Inspired by Humanist photographers, she decided to focus on photography in 1992 and contributes to reporting on issues that are too often overlooked. She joined Robert Doisneau's Rapho agency in 1994 and concentrated on in-depth human rights reportages. She has explored a variety of topics through which she has developed a strong interest in the trafficking of women, illustrated by her project for the 8th edition of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award.


About the Carmignac Photojournalism Award

In 2009, Fondation Carmignac established the Carmignac Photojournalism Award with the aim of funding annually the production of an investigative photo reportage on human rights violations in the world. Selected by an international jury, the laureate receives an endowment of 50,000 euros, enabling them to carry out an in-depth reportage on the ground, with the logistical support of Fondation Carmignac. The latter presents a travelling exhibition and the publication of a monograph, upon their return.


About Fondation Carmignac

Created in 2000 under the initiative of Édouard Carmignac, Fondation Carmignac is a corporate foundation with an art collection of about 300 works, which also funds the Carmignac Photojournalism Award. The Collection, presented and shared inside the company's offices, celebrates American art from the 1960s to the 1980s, with iconic works by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Jean-Michel Basquiat, to 20th and 21st century masterpieces by Gerhard Richter, Willem de Kooning, Martial Raysse, Miquel Barceló or Ed Ruscha, and contemporary art including works by Zhang Huan and El Anatsui. On 1 June 2018, Fondation Carmignac will open the Villa Carmignac on the island of Porquerolles, Sourthern France, to share its collection with the public with a programme of temporary exhibitions, a sculpture park and cultural events.