The ICRC's photos will be displayed from 31 August to 7 September 2009 in a tent set up on the square in front of the Palais des Congrès. The exhibition was organized with support from the Pyrénées-Orientales branch of the French Red Cross.

The ICRC is using this event to commemorate two important anniversaries this year: the Battle of Solferino 150 years ago, which inspired Henry Dunant to create the international Red Cross, and the present Geneva Conventions, the international humanitarian law treaties adopted 60 years ago to protect people in wartime. The ICRC is the guardian of international humanitarian law.

The ICRC's exhibition pays homage to the victims of armed conflict and to the photographers who, since 1860 during the American Civil War, have recorded the consequences of war in humanitarian terms.

This exhibition complements the May 2009 release by the ICRC of the book entitled Humanity in war: frontline photography since 1860, which contains 212 war photos and a preface by American photographer James Nachtwey.