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rronny smedts |
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RRonny Smedts focuses mainly on capturing consequences of his subject matter like transformations in the landscape due to ecological, political or other conflict facts in a balanced and non-direct documentary way. Over the course of his 20-years career he focused on several photo documentaries and advertising assignments all over the world and realised reportage series in collaboration with non-profit organisations like Vredeseilanden and Handicap International. Beside he is related as a teacher in documentary photography at Sint-Lukas Brussels University College of Art and Design.
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| Stories: |
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| Myanmar Nargis - 500 days later |
| RRonny Smedts is one of the very few foreign photographers who was in Myanmar when the cyclone Nargis devastated the Irrawaddy Delta on May 3th 2009. In January 2010 he covered the entire area again dealing with still a lot of problems. |
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| The Sichuan earthtquake - one year later |
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| The 2008 Sichuan earthquake was a very deadly earthquake that occurred on May 12, 2008 in Sichuan province of China and killed at least 68,000. Those images are one of the very view published worldwide ever showing the situation in Sichuan today, about 1 year after the disaster. |
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| Myanmar Nargis 2008 - Irrawaddy Delta |
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| RRonny Smedts is one of the very few foreign photographers who was in Myanmar when the cyclone Nargis devastated the Irrawaddy Delta on May 3th 2009 |
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Myanmar Nargis 2008 - Yangon |
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RRonny Smedts is one of the very few foreign photographers who was in Myanmar when the cyclone Nargis devastated the Irrawaddy Delta on May 3th 2009. |
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A life with the bombs |
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2861 villages reported presence of UXO, this is 25% of all villages. Since 1973 : 2165 people are reported to be injured by UXO. At least 2521 died, many of them children. But many accidents are not reported. Scrap metal in the soil is an important, and sometimes the sole income for the villagers. It is sold for 1000 kip/kg or 10 dollar-cent a kg. People buy cheap Vietnamese metal detectors for 18 USD, since professional gear would cost them 2600 USD per. Most of the accidents with cluster bombs take place by searching for scrap metal 2007: This album is showing people dealing with the danger of UXO in their daily lives, the effects of war on the landscape, and clearance of UXO by Handicap International. |
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Abilities |
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Some facts :
- since 1997: 300 child victims of UXO/ mines, 55 died
- since 1973: 4813 confirmed casualties of cluster bombs / uxo ( 2721 died )
- 1990: 1250 people were injured by road accidents, 99 people died
- 2001: 7673 people suffered injuries and 372 people died, 28% between 15 to 20 years old
- around 2 % of the Laos population is disable
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The quiet capital |
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A photographer’s personal view on daily life in Vientiane, the capital of Laos at the at the Mekong river, which comes across as merely a provincial nest than a bustling capital. |
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Re-Construction |
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On December 26th 2004 the coast of the Aceh province in Indonesia was heavenly struck by a tsunami. Approximately 200 000 people were killed. Many survivors became homeless. Many people still are refugee in their own country. 500 days after the facts, when the international press has lost interest, the aftermath still resonated all over Aceh, RRonny Smedts visited the area and chose fore a more scenic approach to communicate the impact of this environmental disaster. His aesthetic compositions are subtle ways to reconstruct the facts, conveying a strikingly ambiguous effect. At first glance a beautiful landscape is perceived, but looking closer awful traces of the disaster emerge. In these photographs human misery is not forced upon the viewer. Instead they feed the imagination. They force the viewer to picture the impact of the tsunami mentally. |
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Orient |
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These images were made in Southeast Asia and focus on daily life routines of local people. Although these photographs were taken around transport hubs in particular, their setting is certainly not the most important element. These photographs could have been taken anywhere. This series is just a hymn to the daily life of these people, made with love . |
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