THE smiles of sick children living in conflict-torn Palestine are just some of the images captured by Belfast photographer Sean McKernan during a six-month visit to the Middle East.
Having co-founded the Belfast Exposed Photography Project in 1983, Sean has always been interested in using photography as a means for people to express their diverse range of opinions in our own divided society.
"We managed to somehow develop peace in what seemed like an inextricable conflict I was always curious about the Israel-Palestine situation," says Sean, who during his visit as part of the Boulder Colorado & Nablus Palestine Twin Cities Project, met and photographed the Clown Doctors from Red Noses Palestine.
The organisation was established in 2010 to work alongside medical professionals to help dispel the fear and anxiety of children with humour and laughter, as well as bringing a positive energy to hospital staff and patients' families through their unique treatment of enchantment and laughter.
Sean visited hospitals in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Nablus, Jericho and Tulkarm and witnessed at first hand the draconian system of movement controls enforced by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territories that has become increasingly institutionalised and restrictive.
As a result, children in hospitals are often left alone, their families unable to visit and stay with them, causing critical problems for the sick child which in many cases inhibits their healing process.
For these children, the Clown Doctors' fun medication is the highlight of their week.
"I found the work of the Red Noses Clown Doctors to be an imaginative, funny and extremely effective way to contribute to an under-resourced and politically frustrated health care system," said Sean, who was surprised to discover the organisation's intensive training programme produce over 30 clowns.
Most of the team are based around Bethlehem and they regularly endure four-to-six-hour round journeys to visit the children in hospitals throughout occupied Palestine, enduring the constant burden of sporadic roadblocks and permanent Israeli army checkpoints. But for them and the children, the journey is worthwhile, as Sean captured through his lens.
"Witnessing the uncontrollable and reverberating excitement of young patients as the Clown Doctors tumbled, sang and danced into the wards of the Princess Basma Special Needs Centre in Jerusalem was a joy," he said.
The 750-mile-long Israeli 'separation wall' has resulted in the isolation of rural communities from healthcare facilities and while Sean found most of the hospitals to be generally clean and the staff committed to their job, the facilities and medical opportunities were vastly inadequate.
"The level of care and attention given by the medical staff, however admirable, is constantly undermined by the lack of drugs, resources and equipment which we in Ireland would take for granted," he says.
Sean will be sharing his images of the Clown Doctors, as well as portraying the trials and challenges that the Palestinian population have to endure due to the severe restrictions the occupying Israeli forces place on their freedom of movement, in a two-week exhibition at Belfast's ArtCetera Studio Gallery.
"The worst thing I saw was the degrading and humiliating sight of thousands of Palestinians workers undertaking the daily grind of queuing up for many hours like slaves between 3-7am to get through a concrete and steel farm-like construction at the notorious Israeli army-controlled Checkpoint 300 in Bethlehem," he said.
Sean hopes his exhibition will both help raise the profile of Red Noses Palestine and inspire those working here with children to deal with the effects of conflict and trauma.
"I believe that Red Noses' work could inspire and inform the local health sector working with children especially given the impact of our own conflict on the live of many young people," says Sean, who, pending a work permit, plans to bring Red Noses Palestine Artistic Director and Clown Doctor Tareq Alzabon to Belfast to meet with various healthcare groups here.
:: A photographic exhibition by Sean McKernan continues at ArtCetera Studio, Gallery, 43b Rosemary Street, Belfast until April 28.
