Perhaps you have traveled somewhere unfamiliar and culturally different-someplace you had previously only encountered through films, text and word of mouth. Were you surprised to discover new things about these places that conflicted with your preconceived notions?
With funds from the Intercultural Center and the Student Union Finance Board, the Brandeis African Students Organization hosted an exhibition from Nov. 1 to Nov. 8 that featured photography from various regions of Africa including Namibia, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, South Africa, Kenya and Morocco in the Shapiro Campus Center Art Gallery.
The photographs were submitted by Brandeis students, both BASO club members and not.
According to the club's website, BASO "seeks to culturally empower African students and the student body at large to become socially, politically, and critically aware of African cultures." The club aspires to understand the diversity of each African country "through a sociopolitical and sociocultural lens."
Reflecting this mission, BASO came up with the exhibit idea in an effort to help "change the image that the Brandeis students have of Africa as a continent," club secretary Hannah Young '15 said.
One featured photographer named Isaac Steinberg '15 submitted photographs to exhibit from the Volta region in eastern Ghana, Cape Town in South Africa and the cities of Essaouira and Rabat in Morocco.
"Most of my photography, I do [it] abroad. So I try to do it in a way that really transports you to the place I went to," Steinberg said. "I try to give some emotion, some lighting in such a way that makes you feel like you are just thrown into a scene."
One of his personal favorite photographs was of the sunset by a lagoon taken just north of Cape Town. "I was staying by some guest houses with family friends and ... we were walking along the beach. It was a pretty amazing sunset. ... You would look into the distance and see clouds and warmish hues," he said.
Brontte Hwang '15 submitted photos from her time teaching children in Namibia. "It was really hard for me to choose ... the pictures [to submit] because I had so many from my trip. ... The ones I picked were among my favorites, but any picture [in which] my kids are smiling and looking at me... I just love all of those."
"I was really happy for Namibia because [it] is usually a quiet country. Not a lot of people know that it exists, so you don't see a lot of pictures of are out there of the modern [Namibian] people," she said. "I realized [my photos] might have been really important because my children are a part of people who are not well studied. ... These might be some of the few pictures that are out there of the modern [Namibian] people."
Maria Magade '15 is a BASO member and a featured photographer and is an international student from Zimbabwe who submitted photos. "[My] photos were taken at the Victoria Falls, a waterfall on the Zambezi River at the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia," she said. "They were taken during a family vacation. ... [The Victoria Falls is] a popular holiday destination for both international tourists and Zimbabweans alike."
Magade believes the exhibit was a culturally beneficial experience for the Brandeis student body. "The photos [showed] the Brandeis community Africa from [the] perspective [of the] people who have experienced the beauty of the continent firsthand," she said. "[It is] a way of showing people the Africa they probably haven't seen in the media."
Young also had her photography, taken in Uganda and South Africa, featured in the exhibit.
Young's photographs were taken in Uganda. One depicts Young and her host mother dressed in traditional attire, but another is of four South Sudanese students in a Ugandan school and another features the school building with the students out for their morning assembly. "I wanted to show [the many] dimensions [of life] through these different photos," she said. Young's personal favorite is the photograph of herself and her host mother.
Young feels the exhibition was successful. "It was a small exhibit, but we really did think that it showed different aspects that people normally don't consider about culture that they don't really know about," she said.
Hwang said the exhibition helped her connect to the student body. "These are very personal pictures. Of course, the photographs are always personal to the photographer, but when you see an exhibit or photos by Brandeis students, they're people you know. ... These pictures are very personal to them, so I think that connection is really meaningful," she said.
Magade expressed similar sentiments. "[It is] an opportunity to show my fellow Brandeisians some snippets of the beautiful Zimbabwe that I know-the side of Zimbabwe that so many people do not know exists," she said.
Young also indicated an interest in pursuing the same project in the future. "We didn't represent every country in one year, so we'd like to expand and make this a very cohesive and illustrative exhibit for years to come," she said.
Young is glad for the awareness the exhibition promoted. "Our lives are so busy and we're very oriented on our own culture, our own community and our own lives. We tend to make broad assumptions about other cultures," she said."This ... helps create dimensions in other cultures that outsiders don't necessarily see and it's familiarizing yourself with those differences that, in my opinion, is the best way to expand your horizon."