Glimpses of the world via VISA photo exhibit

Jackson Reeves Staff Writer

On a whim, Alejandro Calcaño ’11 shot a photo of a back alley in Venice while he was a student at the United World College of the Adriatic. “Venice is almost a floating museum; no one lives there,” he said. Calcaño’s photo is one of 220 submissions by students to the Vassar International Student Association (VISA) for display and a possible prize in their second annual International Photo Exhibition and Contest.

All of the submissions have been displayed in the All Campus Dining Center’s main dining room since Sunday, Nov. 11, giving diners a chance to look over images from around the world.

“I want people to see through these photographs the myriad aspects of this world,” said VISA Freshman Representative Mudit Lakhmani, who is in charge of the photo contest. “There are so many people who maybe have not traveled abroad, so these photographs will help Americans and internationals alike who haven’t visited these particular places to connect with those places.”

“The most interesting photos portray a substantial socioeconomic difference,” said VISA President Daniel Tan ’09. “Not necessarily causing one to be alarmed or feeling like there has to be need for a change, but that it’s just really different.”

While on the international studies spring break trip during his sophomore year, Peter Whinn ’08 visited an animal bazaar in Morocco. “There was this box of turtles where one of them was making this sort of hilariously slow escape out of it [that] caught my eye,” he said. Whinn zoomed in for a photo on the seemingly grouchy reptile as its front leg reached over ledge. “It was obvious the turtle did not like being in the box with a dozen other turtles…I tried to get that moment where it’s realizing it has nothing to grab onto beyond the rim of the box,” he said.

While taking a year off from Vassar, Daniel Morgan ’08 explored Grenada, Spain in February 2006. His photo shows a snow-haired cat lounging on a chair in front of brightly colored Moresque tiles, oblivious to the tourists milling around it.

“If I could give someone something through this photo, it would be just to display the beauty that’s out there,” said Morgan. “And if that gets someone to travel, then I’ve accomplished something.”

The contest has three awards: Landscape, People and Culture, and People’s Choice. Director of the International Studies Program Pinar Batur, photographer for the Vassar Haiti Project Mario Arthur-Bentil ’10 and an administration representative constitute the panel of judges that will declare the winners of the first two awards. All the winners will receive gift certificates and Haitian artwork donated by the Vassar Haiti Project.

“It’s important to look at these pictures with a sense of neutrality, because we’re not trying to make judgments,” said Tan. “This is not a cry for help—‘Look at this poor part of the world’— that’s not what we’re about. We’re more about [showing that] these are people that live and thrive in very different environments and under very different conditions.”

The exhibit, which will be on display until Nov. 23, is just one part of International Education Week, which was initiated by the U.S. State and Education departments to celebrate multiculturalism. For the College’s third celebration of International Education Week, VISA, the Office of International Student Services and several student organizations hosted Kaleidoscope on Wednesday, which featured multicultural performances and a feast of international cuisine. Students could also enjoy an International Squash Challenge and the South Asian Students Alliance’s Bollywood Marathon film festival.

“As international students, we come here, we learn a lot about American culture, we benefit so much from the system here,” said Tan. “[International Education Week] is kind of our way of giving back.”