NARCISO CONTRERAS "Libya: A Human Marketplace" Fondation Carmignac | SKIRA

Narciso Contreras "Libya : A Human Marketplace"

Publishers Fondation Carmignac | Editions SKIRA

(click on images to enlarge)

Narciso Contreras  Sabha, March 2016

The corpses of illegal sub-Saharan migrants lie in the morgue of Sabha City, after having been collected from the streets and the desert during previous days.

Narciso Contreras  Zawiyah, May 2016

A group of sub-Saharan illegal migrants and refugees is crowded into one section of the Zawiyah detention center, a warehouse-like facility holding as many as two thousand detainees at any time, making it the largest of it's type on Libyan soil. The center serves as a distribution facility in the human trafficking supply chain, and from here inmates are resold to other militias on the west coast of Libya.

Narciso Contreras  Tajoura, May 2016

Sub-Saharan illegal migrants and refugees on the Tajoura shore after having been arrested in the Mediterranean Sea by the Libyan coastguard. 

Narciso Contreras  Surman, June 2016

Illegal female migrants queue in the prison yard as they are loaded on to buses to be transferred to another detention center, after having been sold by the militia group ruling the Surman detention center in the west of Libya.

+  +  +

I just received a powerful new monograph from the Fondation Carmignac on the theme of Libya by Mexican photographer, Narciso Contreras, the 7th Laureate of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award. It is an elegantly designed and produced book co-published by Fondation Carmignac with Editions Skira, Paris and printed in Belgium. The overall book, beautifully typeset on magnificent paper, belies the dangerous situations Contreras put himself in to bring us this ongoing chronicle documenting the brutal reality of human trafficking as he traveled through the complex tribal society of post-Gaddafi Libya from February to June 2016.

"Contreras lays bare an unfolding humanitarian crisis in which illegal migrants, refugees and asylum seekers are at the mercy of militias who exploit them for financial gain. Held in detention centres for illegal migrants, they are subjected to inhumane conditions. He weaves a compelling narrative to show how, instead of being a place of transit for migrants on their way to Europe, Libya has actually become a trafficking market where people are bought and sold on a daily basis. He provides us with a glimpse of the complex and horrifying context migrants are faced with."

 Narciso Contreras,

7th Laureate of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award
"Libya: A Human Marketplace"

Texts by Narciso Contreras and Ela Stapley

Hard Cover, 102 pages, English+French

ISBN 978-2-37074-043-4

Publications Fondation Carmignac

Production: Fondation Carmignac, Direction: Gaia Donzet, Carmignac Photojournalism Award Gestion, Direction: Emeric Glayse, Communications manager: Valentine Dolla, Photo Editors: Patrick Baz, Narciso Contreras, Text: Ela Stapley, Photography & Investigation: Narciso Contreras, Publisher: EDITIONS SKIRA, Senior Editor: Nathalie Prat-Couadau, Editorial Coordination: María Laura Ribadeneira

+  +  +

In 2009, the Fondation Carmignac launched the Carmignac Photojournalism Award with the aim to support, each year, a photojournalist in undertaking a photographic and investigative assignment exploring a theme or an area of the world at the centre of geostrategic conflicts. Selected by an international jury, the Laureate receives 50,000 EUR that enable him/her to spend time into the field, as well as a fully-financed monograph and a touring exhibition of the project.

Created in 2000 by Edouard Carmignac and directed by Gaïa Donzet, the Fondation Carmignac has three strands: the corporate collection comprising nearly 250 contemporary works of art, the annual Carmignac Photojournalism Award led by Emeric Glayse, and the Foundation's project to open an exhibition space and a sculpture park to the public on the preserved site of Porquerolles (Var). Edouard Carmignac’s desire to share his passion for contemporary art, promote freedom of expression and increase awareness of contemporary world issues led him to the creation of this Foundation.

Upcoming Carmignac Photojournalism Award exhibition: Saatchi Gallery, London, May 16–June 16, 2017