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Rhode Island Monthly: Putting a Face to the Global Humanitarian Crisis

By Dana Rae Laverty

September 24, 2024


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A husband-and-wife duo share their powerful photos of refugees at a new Brown University exhibit.


“The Power of Faces: Looking at the Global Refugee Crisis” is on view at Brown University through Dec. 20. Photo courtesy of Daniel Farber Huang and Theresa Menders.


There are 117 million displaced people in the world; people fleeing their homes because of poverty, war, violence, persecution or human rights violations.


Rhode Island-based photographers Daniel Farber Huang and Theresa Menders want to share as many of their stories as they can, and are showcasing their powerful photos from refugee camps around the world at a new exhibit, “The Power of Faces: Looking at the Global Refugee Crisis,” on view at Brown University’s Stephen Robert ’62 Hall.


Since 2017, the husband-and-wife team has taken hundreds of photos of migrants and refugees in overcrowded camps in Greece, Mexico, Bangladesh and the Poland/Ukraine border. They chronicle the bodies huddled together in appalling conditions, the makeshift camps, the lines for food. But their focus is on centering those who have been displaced, taking their pictures in front of colorful backdrops, teasing shy smiles out of the weary souls who have left their homes, families and possessions far behind.


“It was extremely important to humanize our choices, because we are talking about human beings,” says Huang. “Looking at people’s eyes and seeing them face to face, you recognize that the situation may be horrendous and dangerous, but they are not horrendous, dangerous individuals.”


A family photographed at the Vial Refugee Camp in Chios, Greece, in 2017. Photo courtesy of Daniel Farber Huang and Theresa Menders.

They often print out the portraits as keepsakes, which most families treasure, says Menders. People are often excited to get their pictures taken, getting dressed up for their portraits and bringing the entire family along.


“We felt that having a physical photo of themselves, their loved ones, their family, is just such a comfort,” she says. “It was important for us to not always take. A lot of journalists and advocates take photos, they take stories, they take that kind of thing. We wanted to give back.”


The exhibit photos are also contained in an accompanying book, “The Power of Faces: Looking at the Global Refugee Crisis.” A symposium featuring the artists and Omar Bah, executive director of the Refugee Dream Center, and Justin Bibee, of the Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island, will be held Oct. 9 at 5 p.m. at 280 Brook St., Providence.


The pair first started taking photographs in the wake of September 11th. They lived in New York City at the time and it was a way for them to make sense of the chaos. In 2015, they were spurred to chronicle the lives of migrants after their daughter — they have two sons and two daughters — saw a photo of two-year-old Alan Kurdi, a Syrian refugee who drowned in the Mediterranean after trying to flee to Europe.


Theresa Menders and Daniel Farber Huang, left, take photos at a refugee camp in Greece. Photo courtesy of Daniel Farber Huang and Theresa Menders.

“She said, ‘What is that about? Why is this happening?’” says Menders, who grew up in Coventry and just returned to Rhode Island, settling in West Greenwich with Huang. “We are very fact-based, and we wanted to help her understand and help ourselves understand what was going on. And for us to do that, we went over to really take a look at what was going on to understand it for ourselves.”


They both have day jobs, so they carefully plan for their documentarian trips. It’s important work, sometimes daunting work, but they can’t envision doing anything else with their talents.


“We can only do as much as we can. If we just raise our arms and say, ‘I can’t do anything. It’s too big,’ then nothing will get done,” Menders says. “So we want to do whatever we can. We want to let people see what’s happening. Maybe that will help spur them into action.”


A family photograph taken in 2018 at the El Barretal refugee camp in Tijuana, Mexico. Photo courtesy of Theresa Menders and Daniel Farber Huang.

The exhibit runs through Dec. 20 in Stephen Robert ’62 Hall, 280 Brook St., Providence. It’s sponsored by Brown University’s Art at Watson committee and the university’s Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies.

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