Exhibit Features Photographs from MalawiJanuary 16, 2009
The Baobab Cultural Center will feature photographs by Joseph Lanning and Deste Relyea in its January Exhibit, titled Faced with Dependency: A depiction of the maize crisis in Malawi, Africa, juxtaposed by portraits of those affected. The majority of the images displayed are taken from a village named Gowa in the Ntcheu District of Malawi, Africa, and Gowa's surrounding area. The village lies in the southernmost region of the Great Rift Valley, which extends from southwest Asia through the heart of Malawi. Malawi lies in southeastern Africa. The work will be exhibited January 2 through 24. An opening reception for the artists, as well as silent auction benefiting the Malawi Immersion Seminar Scholarship will take place January 16, 2009 at 7:00 PM. Please call 585-563-2145 or email baobab.center@yahoo.com for more information. Regular gallery hours are Thursdays and Fridays 5:30-7:30 PM; Saturdays 2-4 PM.
About the Artists:
Joe Lanning
Having lived and worked in ten African countries over a span of ten years, Joseph Lanning has gained a vantage point on development issues as both an activist and photographer. He first traveled to Africa in 1998 as an Anthropology student, and returned to live in Malawi for 27 months as a community health educator. He now spends his summers teaching American university students in Malawi and works year round managing a not-for-profit organization whose work includes agricultural development projects and education for school girls orphaned by HIV/AIDS.
The majority of his African travel spent living in rural villages, Lanning’s photographic representation of Africa, like his social activism, takes on a grassroots perspective. He aims to represent Malawian life not as one of suffering, but as one of potential, and does this by capturing the entrepreneurial spirit and effort of Malawians to advance, educate, and repair their culture and land, whose developmental potential has been poached, demeaned, and exploited for centuries. The goal of this exhibit is to bring the everyday lives of Malawians to the eyes of Rochesterians and to show Africa as a place of people whose lives intersect with the lives of those who view the images.
Deste Relyea
Deste Relyea began studying the subject and practicing the craft of photography during her sophomore year of high school, and went on to complete a studio arts minor at the University of Rochester with a concentration in photo. Upon her graduation, Relyea began shooting for the school’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions, and she is currently applying to photography MFA programs for enrollment in Fall 2009. Her work has been featured in several university publications and brochures, as well as the Susan B. Anthony Institute’s (en)Gendered Undergraduate Juried Exhibit.
Deste traveled to Malawi, Africa last year just after her graduation from the University of Rochester, and discovered her penchant for journalistic photography. She is thrilled to utilize her images towards the broadening of horizons and aims, with this exhibit, to bring two horizons – Rochester and Malawi – closer together. Through the beauty in the faces, landscapes, and other images of Malawian everyday life, she hopes to instill a more rounded consideration of the country and its people to those who have not or may not ever have the opportunity to experience in person a world so different and yet so similar to their own.