Photo Gallery Highlights Nepal’s Religious Harmony

The Photographic Gallery hosted the first exhibition of the year, titled “Nepal: Harmony & Diversity” on September 16, shedding the light on that country’s culture and tolerance to diversity.

Travel photographer Boulos Isaac, who took the exhibited 32 pictures during his year-long visit to Nepal in 2016, not only focused on the culture but on the architecture and monuments as symbols of their ancient traditions.

The exhibit captures expressive moments which reflect how diverse peoples with different beliefs can live together in peace and harmony.

Bucking the trend, Isaac refused to caption his photographers; he wants the audience to interpret whatever they want from the pictures without the influence of words.

One particularly striking photograph was of a mother holding her son and praying.

Piety and prayer were motifs which ran through Isaac’s exhibit.

The exhibition, which runs until October 11, marks the gallery’s 10th anniversary. Its curator Noura Baghat said that, as a form of celebration, the gallery will exhibit the finest photos of arts students enrolled in photography classes in November.

But the gallery has faced a number of challenges to attract student engagement.

While the gallery’s mission is to expose students a different culture and raise their interest in travel photography, there was low student attendance at the opening.

“We distribute flyers, send emails, hang banners, what else can we do? It’s been very difficult since we moved to New Cairo. Tahrir was very central. We used to get everybody, but since [2008] we’ve become isolated. All the security measures, people can’t park, it made it very difficult to access AUC,” said Bahgat.

“I knew about the gallery through email. Honestly, I think we should promote it more, because not a lot of people know about it. If it is promoted more in the Arts department, more people will show up,” said Visual Arts senior Hanya El Ghamry.