‘OUR LIVES’ Leprosy Photo Exhibition

Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, is one of the oldest diseases known to mankind, but even today, after having become a curable illness, the disease has a major impact not only on the lives of people who have contracted the disease, but on their families as well. For many years, The Nippon Foundation has been working to eliminate leprosy-related prejudice and discrimination. As one of those activities, we will be holding a leprosy-themed photo exhibition in New Delhi, India.
With 130,000 cases detected annually, India has one of the highest number of new cases in the world, and there are said to be more than 800 colonies where persons affected by leprosy and their families live, separated from society. The photographs to be exhibited were taken by Natsuko Tominaga,* The Nippon Foundation’s photographer, to show and give voice to the people and families who live in these colonies and are working together to fight prejudice and discrimination, and the people who have been forced to live away from their families after having contracted the disease. There will also be photographs showing current circumstances related to leprosy in 40 of the countries Ms. Tominaga has visited in the course of her work.

Exhibition

Dates & time	April 20 – May 1, 2018; 11:00 – 19:00 (including Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays)
Location	Art Gallery, Kamaladevi Complex, Gate No1, India International Centre, 40 Max Mueller Marg, New Delhi 110003
No. of photographs	90 (showing current circumstances related to leprosy in India and 40 other countries)
Organizer	India International Centre
Partners	The Nippon Foundation; Sasakawa-India Leprosy Foundation
Support	Embassy of Japan in India; Ananta Aspen Centre

• Natsuko Tominaga has been The Nippon Foundation’s photographer since 2002, and has traveled with Yohei Sasakawa, Chairman of The Nippon Foundation and WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination, to roughly 60 countries to photograph local conditions related to leprosy. She has held exhibitions titled “To Think about Leprosy is to Think about People” in Tokyo in 2015, and in Tokyo, Osaka, and Fukuoka in 2016.