Western Sahara was invaded by Morocco in 1975 and has been occupied illegally since then, with the complicity of the western powers. Photographer Andrew McConnell has an exhibition in New York, displaying portraits of Sahrawi Bedouins in exile from their native Western Sahara. McConnell says: “In pursuing the Sahrawis’ story, what struck me more than anything else was how forgotten these people are. How is it possible, in the 21st century, for tens of thousands of men, women, and children to languish in refugee camps for three and a half decades – unknown? How can continuous UN resolutions and international laws be ignored and abused without censure? And how can human-rights abuses proceed unchallenged?”
McConnell’s portraits are set in the dark: “I wanted to give a sense that this is one long night for the Sahrawis—lasting 35 years. My showing very little of the land emphasizes that the Sahrawis are landless.”