Travel Writing

Travel, Writing, and the Ethics of Observation

writing . culture . location

This free one-day event took place on 16th June 2011.  It featured a generative writing workshop, a projected photographic exhibition and presentations from Dr. Corinne Fowler and Dr. Harry Whitehead (University of Leicester) and photographer Richard Hanson. The workshop concentrated on unpicking established conventions of travel writing and considered some recent innovations in representing other places and peoples. Through discussion and generative writing exercises, participants were invited to explore the ethical implications of their own chosen mode of writing about travel, tackling the challenge of evoking a sense of place while remaining alert to ways in which contemporary and historical global inequalities impinge on people’s relationships to that place.

Photographic Exhibition, Haiti: Beyond the Rubble

From the 1st June 2011, international aid and development agency Tearfund presented ‘Haiti: Beyond the Rubble’, a new month-long photographic exhibition showcasing original photographs taken by the children of Haiti and photographer Richard Hanson, who visited Haiti with Tearfund throughout 2010.

Fifty Haitian school children were given disposable cameras and asked to take photographs of their favourite things. The images are a unique insight into family life after one of the biggest natural disasters of recent times.

The photographs illustrate Haiti’s recovery after the devastating earthquake on January 12th 2010, and the stories of the people Tearfund has met and worked with over the last year. The exhibition took place at Central Hall Westminster from 1-30 June 2011 and the images can be seen on Richard Hanson’s website: www.hansonphoto.co.uk