A Special Photo Exhibition which Travelled from NYHQ Starts at UN Gallery on Monday, 26 February.

A photographic exhibition entitled “Eyes on the World” will start at UN Gallery on Monday, 26 February 2007.  The exhibit, commemorating the 15th anniversary of the Alexia Foundation for World Peace and Cultural Understanding, features photographs by Alexia Competition winners. This exhibition was first held in the Main Gallery of the General Assembly Visitors’ Lobby at the United Nations Headquarters in March 2006 and attracted many visitors. It has travelled to Japan for the first time.

The Alexia Foundation for World Peace is a non-profit organization founded in 1991 by Dr. Peter and Aphrodite Thevos Tsairis in honour of their daughter, Alexia, a victim of the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.  Alexia was a promising photojournalism student at the S.I. Newhouse School for Public Communication at Syracuse University.

Each year, the Alexia Competition, held under the auspices of the Newhouse School, awards grants to photojournalists whose work gives insight into cultural differences and gives voice to victims of social injustice.  Since its inception, the Alexia Foundation has supported the work of accomplished amateur and professional photojournalists whose compelling visual narratives demonstrate the power of documentary photography.  To date, grants have been awarded to 80 undergraduate photographers and 11 professionals.

Concurrent with the exhibit in 2006, the foundation released a commemorative book, Eyes on the World, highlighting selected photographs by Alexia Competition winners.  The book will be available for purchase at UN Gallery or through the website of the Alexia Foundation.