Make Fairtrade Your Habit: Photography Exhibition

AN EXHIBITION OF PHOTOS BY TREVOR LEIGHTON FOR THE FAIRTRADE FOUNDATION FEATURING VIC REEVES, DONNA AIR, JEMMA KIDD AND STARSAILOR

the.gallery@oxo, Oxo Tower Wharf , Bargehouse Street, London SE1
Free entrance
Opening times: 11am – 6pm
Wednesday 8 March – Sunday 26 March 2006

As part of their initiative to get us all to make Fairtrade our habit, the Fairtrade Foundation have recruited familiar faces such as Vic Reeves, Adrian Edmondson, Donna Air, and Jemma Kidd to highlight the positive impact that buying Fairtrade products can have on poverty. The exhibition is being launched during Fairtrade Fortnight, the annual promotional event supported by major retailers and independents, universities, local towns and development agencies, which runs from 6 – 19 March.

Trevor Leighton has taken a series of black and white portraits showing high profile celebrities having fun with a range of Fairtrade products from pineapples to cotton. Accompanying the photographs are quotes from the celebrities explaining why they are committed to buying Fairtrade.

Leighton, who has one of the largest collections of photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, explains: “This exhibition shows how celebrities are making a small change in the way they shop, to make Fairtrade their habit, and thus help to make a real change in developing countries. This is not about a single action people can take- but a small change they can make on an ongoing basis- helping individuals every time they shop.”

Vic Reeves, who is depicted with a Fairtrade banana, says “2005 was a great year for raising awareness for fair trade, and it’s so important that we keep forging ahead- keep on until it is no longer a conscious choice, but a habit for everyone.”

Harriet Lamb, Director of Fairtrade Foundation, which commissioned the exhibition reiterates: “The theme of Fairtrade Fortnight and the photo exhibition, Make Fairtrade Your Habit, aims to encourage everyone to get into the habit of buying a broad range of Fairtrade products, now so many more are available. We are delighted celebrities are showing how we can play our part in effecting real change in people’s lives. By making Fairtrade our habit we can – cup by cup, banana by banana, help Make Poverty History.

There are now more than 1,300 Fairtrade products available from oranges and tea to roses and wine, enabling more farmers and workers to benefit. We can all put Fairtrade at the heart of our regular shopping”.

To find out more about Fairtrade Foundation and the issues surrounding Fairtrade please visit www.fairtrade.org.uk.


For further information
Please contact Lotte Jones on 0207 403 2230 or lotte@forster.co.uk

Notes to editors

• Celebrities featured in the exhibition are: Adrian Edmondson, Amanda Burton, Anita Roddick, Charlie Dimmock, Donna Air, Emilia Fox, Fearne Cotton, Gail Porter, George Alagiah, Harry Hill, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Jemma Kidd, Jon Snow, Lenny Henry, Nick Knowles, Oz Clarke, Richard Wilson, Starsailor, Vic Reeves and Yasmin Alabhai-Brown
• To view Trevor Leighton’s work please visit www.trevorleighton.com
• The Fairtrade Foundation was established in 1992 by CAFOD, Christian Aid, New Consumer, Oxfam, Traidcraft and the World Development Movement. These founding organisations were later joined by Britain's largest women's organisation, the Women's Institute
• Fairtrade Fortnight is the annual promotional campaign co-ordinated by the Fairtrade Foundation, the independent certification body behind the FAIRTRADE Mark. The FAIRTRADE Mark appears on products as a guarantee of a better deal for farmers and workers in developing countries. Several thousand locally organised events, tastings and promotions are expected to take place across the UK in 2006.
• The Fairtrade Foundation is a registered charity (no. 1043886). It is also a company registered in England and Wales (no. 2733136)
  

The Fairtrade Foundation,
Room 204, 16 Baldwin’s Gardens,
London EC1N 7RJ.

Tel: 020 7405 5942
Fax: 020 7405 5943
Web: www.fairtrade.org.uk