By Joseph Blake
Award-winning photographer Brian Harris’s beautiful and inspiring multimedia show, Himalayan Visions and Tibetan Voices, is scheduled for UVic’s David Lam Auditorium Friday night at 7:30 p.m. and the Malaspina College Theatre in Nanaimo Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.
Dedicated to raising awareness about international development programs, particularly SEVA, Canada’s sight restoration project, the 90-minute show features 225 of Harris’s striking images and music and narrative by Zasep Tulku Rinpoche and Iain Marrs.
The Toronto Globe and Mail has hailed Harris’s “exquisite photos and tragic tales,” while the photographer explains that he “wanted to give something back to the people whose pictures I take. The true artist in this situation is the culture. The photographer is just passing by. The tradition and culture created these images.
“I’m almost fixated on the true culture of the Tibetan Buddhists, how these religious traditions express themselves qualitatively in everyday life,” he said. “Perhaps you could say my photos are romantic idealizations, because I seek out images that most clearly express the old culture.”
The 51-year-old Canadian photographer has been a Buddhist for three decades and has spent the past 15 years documenting ancient Himalayan Buddhist culture. Part of his show is the tale of Harris’s life in service and part of it is drawn from his book, Tibetan Voices: A Traditional Memoir. It collects magical stories and heartbreaking profiles of the people he met while travelling in the Himalayas.
Tickets for both of this weekend’s showings are $13 at the door. You can preview Harris’s show at www.seva.ca/tour.
