The theme of this exhibit, “In a Village”, arose from an unplanned, serendipitous visit to the village of Khokana in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, three years ago. A severe rainstorm during the night caused a last-minute change in my itinerary and Khokana was an alternative. It was a village of only a few hundred people. None of the homes had running water and only a few had electricity. Nonetheless, the community spirit was evident.
After my visit to Khokana, I began visiting other small villages such as those of the hill tribes of the Nam Ou Valley in northern Laos as well as villages in Japan.
This exhibit, then, is a departure from the themes of my earlier exhibits. City life has been a dominant theme of most of my photography. This is not surprising, since I have lived most of my adult life in large cities: Chicago, New York and Tokyo.
This theme should not be surprising to me. As a child my home was a farm in the state of Iowa in the U.S. The nearest town had a population of only about two thousand people. Elsewhere in the county were several small villages with only a few hundred residents. I had never thought much about these villages, neither then nor now. Maybe somehow the spirit of a village calls to me.
Visit the gallery “Nam Ou Valley“