The Bronx Documentary Center and Magnum Foundation present An Expression of Absence, an exhibit taking inspiration from poet Mahmoud Darwish and critic John Berger that explores the ways photography conjures absence to represent time, memory, disappearance, loss, and erasure. In a context where the legacies of colonialism and political instability have imbued notions of home and belonging with impermanence and nostalgia, how can what is within the frame point to the hidden and missing?

On view: October 28 – December 18, 2022

• Magnum Foundation opening reception: Wednesday, October 26, 2022, from 07:00 p.m. – 08:30 p.m. (RSVP);
• BDC opening reception: Friday, October 28, 2022 from 06:00 p.m. – 09:00 p.m. (RSVP).

“No matter how near you come, you will remain distant. No matter how often you are killed, you will live. So do not think that you are dead there, and alive here. Nothing proves this or that but metaphor.” – Mahmoud Darwish, In the Presence of Absence.

“A friend came to see me in a dream. From far away. And I asked him in the dream: ‘Did you come by photograph or train?’ All photographs are a form of transport, and an expression of absence.” – John Berger and Jean Mohr, A Seventh Man The exhibit, divided in two parts displayed at the BDC and Magnum Foundation, features fifteen projects produced in the Arab Documentary Photography Program (ADPP). Many of these works move from the exterior realms of the public and the political to…