LOS ANGELES.- The Skirball Cultural Center presents the exhibit Darfur: Now Photographs by Michal Ronnen Safdie. This exhibition presents nearly 40 color and black-and-white photographs taken during Michal Ronnen Safdie's travels to the Central African countries of Rwanda and Chad. In 2002, she focused on the pilot phase of Rwanda's gacaca tribunals, an emotionally-charged public confessional process meant to resolve the fates of lower-level genocide suspects and help victims learn precisely how their loved ones were murdered. In 2004, she documented the hardships of the refugees displaced from Sudan's Darfur region living in Bahai, a makeshift camp on the Chadian border; two-thirds of the camps 18,000 refugees were women and children, still in shock from the genocide carried out against their families and communities. The exhibition challenges us to look at the aftermath and consequences of cruelty and violence perpetrated by individuals against their neighbors and by governments against their citizens. The images are intended to inspire public awareness and action to aid those who have been overwhelmed by such horrific events.

Born in Jerusalem, Safdie is author of The Western Wall (1997), a book of photographs with an introduction by Yehuda Amichai, which also took the form of an international traveling exhibition. Her work has been exhibited at Salander-O'Reilly Galleries in New York, Robert Klein Gallery in Boston, and Tel Aviv University Art Gallery. Her photographs are included in museum and private collections, including George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, and The Jewish Museum in New York.