Haiti

Through photographs of extraordinary intensity and power Gilden opens our eyes to this fascinating and tragic country. Only an hour’s flight from Miami and mainland America, Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. It has suffered military dictatorship for most of the last forty years since the infamous Papa Doc Duvalier seized power in 1957. US military intervention in 1994 finally led to the reinstatement of democracy but the legacy of the brutal Tonton Macoute (secret police) still pervades. Steeped in Voodoo and brutalised by its rulers, it is a country where human life is cheap and animals hardly worthy of life. The unconscious violence that runs through from slaughterhouse to street is chillingly captured in Gilden’s photographs.