A Procession of Them — Human Rights and Psychiatric Institutions

First on assignment and then as a volunteer for the human rights group Mental Disability Rights International, Eugene Richards has documented the cruelty and mistreatment that the mentally ill and the developmentally disabled suffer in psychiatric facilities. Deprived of proper medical care, counseling, and education, residents of public psychiatric institutions stand little chance of living productively within these facilities.

OSI's Documentary Photography Project sponsored a discussion about the use of photography in advocating for the rights of those with mental and developmental disabilities. The panel is part of the ongoing "Photography as Advocacy?" series, which explores how photography can be used to shape public policy and perception and to effect social change.

Moderated by the curator of OSI's Moving Walls exhibit, photographer Susan Meiselas, the panel featured:

• Eugene Richards, photographer;
• Eric Rosenthal, founder and executive director of Mental Disability Rights International.

Location

Columbia University School of Social Work
1255 Amsterdam Avenue (between 121st and 122nd Streets)
Concourse Level, Room C03
New York, NY

Richards’s work, which is part of the Moving Walls 10 photography exhibition organized by the Open Society Institute, is currently on display at the Columbia University School of Social Work.