Phil Borges »

Bridges to Understanding

Exhibition: 24 Apr 2004 – 11 Jan 2005

Bridges to Understanding
Abi Gul, 7, Rumbur Valley, Pakistan: Abi Gul’s father spent eleven years fighting in the Pakistan courts to keep the Kalash valleys from being logged. For the Kalash, who have an animist cosmology, trees are very sacred. Three years ago Abi Gul’s father was killed by a bomb that was thrown into their little two room home. Her uncle continued the court case and finally won the judgment. Abi Gul was very serious and quiet. Very diligent, she stayed by my side and assisted me as I photographed her friends and relatives in her small village.

Bridges to Understanding, explores and celebrates the exquisitely meticulous work of award-winning and world-renowned photographer, Phil Borges. For more than 25 years, Borges has been taking breathtaking and stunning black and white photos of people and their cultures in remote and ancient villages that today are still concealed from the world's view.

For many years, while Borges was taking photos of the indigenous people of the world, his dream was to connect young people of diverse cultures in a manner that goes beyond photographs and books. He realized his dream with his creation of Bridges, a project that is intended to electronically link children from around the world through computers and imagery.

Works

  • Abi Gul, 7, Rumbur Valley, Pakistan: Abi Gul’s father spent eleven years fighting in the Pakistan courts to keep the Kalash valleys from being logged. For the Kalash, who have an animist cosmology, trees are very sacred. Three years ago Abi Gul’s father was killed by a bomb that was thrown into their little two room home. Her uncle continued the court case and finally won the judgment. Abi Gul was very serious and quiet. Very diligent, she stayed by my side and assisted me as I photographed her friends and relatives in her small village.
  • Buzayan, 6, Jinka, Ethiopia: Buzayan lives with her mother and three older sisters in a small Ethiopian village. Her father took a job as a policeman in a neighboring town and later abandoned the family for another woman. Even though it is very expensive for her, Buzayan’s mother is committed to keeping all the children in school. When I asked Buzayan about kindergarten, she squealed with delight and started jumping up and down.
  • Dimicia, 7, Chahuatire, Peru: Dimicia’s mother was instrumental in establishing a school in their small village. About the time Dimicia started first grade, her nine-year-old brother began working as a porter on the Inca Trail. For less than three dollars a day, he carries some 40 pounds of camping equipment for tourists making the popular four-day hike to Machu Picchu. Quechua
  • Lourdes, 9, Willoq, Peru: Lourdes gets up at five o’clock in the morning to take her cows up the mountain before school begins. After school she makes the three-mile trek back up the mountain to retrieve the cows and returns home to help her mother cook dinner. She carries her sister Benigno with her most of the day. At school she currently speaks Quechua, her native language, but next year she will be taught in Spanish.