A SLOW VIOLENCE

This work is ongoing. 

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Slow violence describes a multifaceted violence that occurs gradually and out of sight, a violence of delayed destruction dispersed across time and space, an attritional violence that is typically not viewed at all.

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This category of harm is rooted in systemic inequality, curtailing the ability of vast populations to exist humanely while a privileged few not only have the power to escape acute harm, but the ill-defined, slow misfortunes that become perceptible in retrospect. Documenting this climate change-induced phenomenon across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, A Slow Violence unearths the covert traumas between catastrophes, making tangible the persistent struggle for survival. 

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This recurring cycle spans generations, forcing vast populations to choose between reactions of desperation and resignation in the face of impenetrable barriers. It manifests as amorphous health crises, reinforced gender roles, high effort coping, enduring economic instability, environmental degradation, and government ineffectiveness. This repeated and intangible form of injury to the social, physical, and environmental body provokes us to expand our definition of harm and consider the brutality of existence in obscurity.