Picture preview: The Gaddafi archives - Libya before the Arab Spring

An exhibition of photographs, documents and artefacts from the Human Rights Watch archive paints a portrait of Libya in the four decades prior to the Arab Spring.

Last year's demonstration brought about massive change in a region which had been subject for 42 years to the regime of Colonel Gaddaf, the military leader whose dramatic death at the hands of revolutionaries in his hometown of Sirte was reported last October.

The historical exhibition includes objects and images representing the reign of King Idris, from whom Gaddafi seized power via a military coup in 1969. Also on display will be pictures and documents seized from Gaddafi's residences and state intelligence ministries by Human Rights Watch emergencies director Peter Bouckaert and photojournalists.

The display examines the tension between the public and private faces of the Gaddafi regime as well as the wider implications of his early popularity and latterday reputation.

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The Gaddafi archives - Libya before the Arab Spring from 21 to 29 June, Slade Research Centre, part of the London Festival of Photography, www.lfph.org