Under an Open Sky

27 years ago, on April 7, 1994, Hutu militia initiated a genocide in Rwanda – and the whole world chose to look away. More than a million innocent people were massacred. What is less widely known is that hundreds of thousands of women were raped. Many of the victims remain mentally and physically traumatised, and live on the fringes of Rwanda’s now prosperous society. In collaboration with the aid organisation Ora Kinderhilfe, photographer Olaf Heine spent three years portraying 80 surviving women alongside the daughters they had conceived during these unimaginable months.

To mark the aid organisation’s 40th anniversary, Spring Brand Ideas presents an outdoor exhibition that brings these powerful and moving portraits to the streets of Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne. The project has previously been honoured with the German Photo Book Prize (‘Rwandan Daughters’ was released by Hatje Cantz Publishing in 2019), and shown in numerous exhibitions. Through the joint efforts of Spring Brand Ideas, Ora Kinderhilfe and Olaf Heine, the survivors’ dignity and strength now takes centre stage in three major German cities.

For further information visit Olaf Heine, spring brand ideas, ora Kinderhilfe und Hatje Cantz