two new photography exhibits at the Lamont Gallery in Exeter

In “Camera Lucida,” Roland Barthes writes that the advent of photography divides the history of the world. “The world has existed for hundreds of thousands of years, there have been images for thousands of years, since the cave paintings… And then, all at once, around 1822, a new type of image appears, a new iconic phenomenon, entirely, anthropologically new.” Barthes was a French literary critic, but his examination of photography, published in 1980, impelled Phillips Exeter Academy alumnus Andrew E. Lewin to start collecting photographs. 

Lewin was struck by Barthes’ discussion of the relationship between photography and reality and how a photograph transforms the three-dimensional world into a flat surface. Photographs also have the ability to connect people across time, distance and cultural divides. The medium represents a turning point in human history because of the way it can change how people think about themselves and the world.

In its current exhibit, the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy has used photography to create a window through which visitors can gain perspective on the daily reality of living in a drastically, suddenly altered cityscape or among the crowded despair of a refugee camp. “Return, Afghanistan,” a collection of photographs by Zamaї Ahad, and “China Past/Present,” which includes work by Sze Tsung Leong, Chi Peng and Chen Lingyang, will be on display through May 19.  

“Return, Afghanistan” was lent to the Lamont Gallery by Joy of Giving Something, Inc., a nonprofit organization that supports aspiring photographers. Traditionally a black-and-white photographer, Zamaї Ahad uses color here for the first time. The vibrant hues and striking contrasts in his images are dramatically formatted in large panoramic prints. Around one corner of the exhibit, the viewer is confronted with four men staring directly at the camera. They wear grave expressions on their faces and similar, earth-toned clothing. Each man represents one of the four ethnic groups in Afghanistan. During the civil war of the 1990s, these four men would have been bitter enemies. But in post-9/11 Afghanistan, they share the same struggles and lead a fragile co-existence in the capital city, Kabul.   

Born in Afghanistan, Ahad fled his home country along with millions of other refugees during the Soviet invasion of 1980. After 23 years in exile, Ahad returned to Afghanistan to document the hope and hardships of his war-torn country. Much of his work focuses on former refugees who returned to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban.  

“I felt that now, after such a long time, there was hope again for Afghanistan. It seemed to me that colors were returning and that they would be those of a peaceful country. And so I set out to find this hope, with—for the first time—color film in my camera,” Ahad said in his artist’s statement. Andrew Lewin, now a trustee at the International Center for Photography in New York, introduced the Lamont Gallery to Joy of Giving Something, Inc., and the concurrent exhibit “China Past/Present” is at the gallery courtesy of his own collection.

The photographs in “China Past/Present” attempt to document the space and time between China’s past and its current trend of modernization. According to Lewin, “Photography is the preferred means by which Chinese artists have chosen to reflect the remarkable, rapid transformation that has occurred as China modernized seemingly overnight.”

China’s explosive economic growth has led to reckless industrialization and the push to rebuild urban spaces. In the wake of this renewal, traces of poverty and decay remain evident. The collected photographs illustrate a striking contrast between crumbling old structures and the clean lines of recent development, where dusty haze and fields of rubble show the underbelly of China’s much-admired growth. One image, by Chen Lingyang, is illuminated with a back lamp and shows a blue-hued, nighttime cityscape. Apartment lights glow, neon signs blare and a few lone cars trace their ways through the city. This sharply detailed photograph stands out from the other images and their more bleary backgrounds.
In addition to “Return, Afghanistan” and  “China Past/Present,” the Lamont Gallery is currently featuring an exhibit called “Sri Lankan Contemporary Art: Island Visions.” The exhibit features paintings and mixed media works by four well-known Sri Lankan artists: Druvinka, Shehan Madawela, Nelun Harassgama and Josephine Balakrishnan.

These images portray the earthy, natural beauty of everyday life in Sri Lanka. From windblown trees to wispy human figures, these paintings disregard the armed conflict that has afflicted Sri Lanka for years, instead portraying the natural, peaceful state of Sri Lankan life.

This collection, courtesy of The Private Gallery, which is owned by Shalini Amerasinghe Ganendra, an alumnus of Phillips Exeter Academy from 1982, will be on display until May 12.