This semester’s Perspectives Gallery exhibit received more than 130 submissions from students who traveled to all corners of the globe including American Samoa, Japan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Chile. The selected images reflect a cross-section of submissions and shed light on the breadth and depth of the students’ experience and presence around the globe. The current exhibit takes viewers on a journey beginning in America’s backyard with a beautiful and iconic scene in Cuba captured by Swathi Gokulan. Swathi traveled to the Island this past winter break and captured this scene along Havana’s seafront, the Malecon. The motion of the beautiful 1950s vehicle makes this scene especially iconic.
A jump across South America takes viewers to Chile where Anamaria Karrels spent the summer working for the State Department. Ms. Karrels celebrated the Fourth of July in the Andes Mountains despite the heavy snow storm that made visibility less than a few yards. The storm cleared in the early afternoon and the mountain scene lay before Anamaria where she captured the stunning landscape that lay before her.
Across the Atlantic Ocean, Sasha Lansky visited Tanzania during the summer of 2017. She was excited at the prospect of going on a safari, but dubious about the advantages of a walking safari. After six minutes of stepping into the grasslands of Arusha National Park, Ms. Lansky came across a giraffe peeking out from behind a tree branch. Just a few giraffes greeting some visitors - all captured by happenstance but nonetheless, a decisive moment.
Pulkit Aggrawal spent a week traversing Israel and the Palestinian territories with the Fletcher Israel Trek last March. He captured a solemn moment of two men praying at one of the holiest sites of western religious traditions, the Western Wall.
Sam Schleipman submitted many photographs to the gallery this semester, two of which were selected. Mr. Schleipman recently spent time across Southeast Asia. His first selection takes us to Yangon, Myanmar, where he captured an evening street scene. The image offers the brilliant luminosity that is the dusk setting amidst the organized chaos of downtown traffic; the swirls of vehicle brake lights provide guide one’s eyes toward the towering Sule Pagoda, setting the backdrop for the beautiful scene. Mr. Schleipmean also captured a moment in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia between a young woman and a young traditional dancer. The little girl, beaming with her beautifully adorned traditional dress, willingly embraces the selfie opportunity.
Crossing to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Lauren Nutter visited American Samoa on business while working for a D.C. non-profit organization. Ms. Nutter was inspired by the beauty of American Samoa not experienced by many mainland Americans. But the context of her beautiful photograph of the American Samoan landscape intersected with her decision to begin her Fletcher journey. The day after her visit, Ms. Nutter would travel to Fletcher for Admitted Students Day where she eventually decided to begin her MALD journey.
If the Perspectives Gallery submissions are any indication, no two experiences of Fletcher students are the same. The Perspectives Gallery this semester offers viewers a visual journey of the many experiences Fletcher students take prior and during their time at Fletcher.
Originally overseen by a sudent group of the same name, the Fletcher Perspectives Gallery is an exhibit space for photography and art, with the goal of highlighting world cultures and promoting understanding and tolerance. The gallery has been in Ginn Library since 2001 and contributes to the library's role as a venue for introducing and sharng a diversity of viewpoints on the world we live in. A second Perspectives gallery location was opened in 2017 in the Fletcher Office of Development and Alumni Relations at 128 Professors Row. Each year Ginn Library recruits a Perspectives Gallery student curator to corrdinate exhibitions on behalf of the School. Anthony Schultz has been the curator for 2017/18.
For more information about the Fletcher Perspectives Gallery or to see the images from the current and past exhibits, visit the gallery page on our website.
