Travelogue: Photographs of Life in Cambodia, and Cuba

Fri, Feb 3
5:00 - 8:00 PM
free

February 3 - April 30, 2006
Reception: Friday, February 3, 5:00 - 8:00 PM
FREE PUBLIC EVENT
ASUC Art Studio Gallery
MLK, Jr. Student Union Building
Berkeley, CA 94720-4500
On the UC Berkeley campus, steps from Sather Gate
510.642.3065
www.asucartstudio.org
__________________________________________________________________
Photographer Mark Shaw was born to travel. The son of a captain in
the British Merchant Marine, he had twice been around the world
before the age of five.

Opening Friday, February 3, at the ASUC Art Studio at UC Berkeley,
Travelogue, combines photographs and journal excerpts Shaw recorded
over the past ten years during his travels to Cuba, and Southeast Asia.

Now thirty-six, Shaw not only inherited the travel bug from his
father, but also a love of photography. He describes how as a
teenager he learned to print images in a makeshift darkroom. "In the
closet, between my father's coats and trousers was an enlarger, and
there the passion for bringing images to life slowly evolved." With
the passing of his father eighteen months ago, Mark Shaw has become
more aware of the ways his life parallels his father's.


"I enjoy traveling to places that are as opposite as possible to my
own life. From this, I have
really come to appreciate all that I have and how fortunate I am. I
want my images to show
what life is like elsewhere and capture a moment of it to show others
what is out there beyond
their own lives. I like to stop and communicate with the people I
photograph - to learn from them
and laugh with them."

Shaw's curiosity draws him far off the beaten path. He fearlessly
explores places tourists never venture. In Laos, he spent several
days making photographs in a hospital where families tended their
loved ones. In this same hospital, he stumbled upon a workshop where
prosthetic limbs carved from wood are made for Laotians maimed by
landmines. In Bangkok, he befriended a homeless woman who lives on
the street in a paper tent with thirteen dogs. A Buddhist nun became
a friend. She invited him into the monastery where he observed the
rites of passage of young monks. In Cuba, he explored narrow alleys
where life and death rubbed shoulders.

The photographs, shot in both black and white and rich color, capture
paradoxes of the human condition - the fleeting glints of the
individual and the inextricable core that binds all humanity.

Passages from Shaw's journals are works of art in themselves. His
observations, written in plain, direct prose, are combined with bits
of local ephemera to create beautiful collages. While exploring the
world with his camera, Shaw records impressions of his interior life
in the pages of his journal. He is open to adventure and is eager to
go where the road leads him. Travelogue is an invitation to come along.

To view additional images and please visit Mark Shaw's website:
www.johnmarkshaw.com/ or contact the ASUC Art Studio at
510.642.3065 www.asucartstudio.org.


Contact : Erica Terman, Manager, ASUC Art Studio
510.642.6161 bull


Since 1961, the ASUC Art Studio has provided the UC Berkeley students
and the general public affordable art instruction, open studio
facilities, cultural programming and exhibitions that feature
emerging local artists.

Venue:

ASUC Art Studio Gallery
MLK Jr Student Uniom
Berkeley
510.642.3065
http://www.asucartstudio.org

ASUC Art Studio Gallery
MLK, Jr. Student Union Building
Berkeley, CA 94720-4500
On the UC Berkeley campus, steps from Sather Gate

Additional Info:

510 642-3065
www.asucartstudio.org