Artist Talk: Cathal McNaughton

Belfast Exposed invites you to the Artist Talk with Cathal McNaughton, a Pulitzer Prize winning Northern Irish photographer, following the opening of his exhibition 'Rohingya' in Gallery 2.

"'Cathal McNaughton travelled to Cox's Bazar in 2017 to document the plight of the Rohingya people who were fleeing a deadly crackdown by Myanmar's army on Rohingya Muslims, forcing hundreds of thousands across the border into neighbouring Bangladesh.

The Rohingya people are a stateless Indo-Aryan ethnic group who predominantly follow Islam and reside in Rakhine State in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. The Rohingyas’ face a gruelling ordeal as they risk everything to escape a military offensive which the United Nations has described as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing". After their traumatic journey they arrive at already overcrowded camps in Bangladesh filled with makeshift shelters. Exhausted, starving, wet and caked in mud, these refugees scramble in crushing crowds for aid while security officers endeavour to keep order. Many are suffering from malnutrition, sickness or injuries, and with limited access to food, water and medical help, many of the weak and vulnerable die."