Community Connections: Picturing Bhutan
Computer science professor taps hobby to benefit Asian communities
- Bhutanese dancers perform at a monastery to honor Salesin's group.
View a slide show of photos from Bhutan.
Computer science Professor David Salesin is an internationally recognized researcher in computer graphics. But it’s his hobby photography that has brought him recent fame.
In September, a Seattle shop opened an exhibit of photos he took on a trip to Bhutan. A few days after the opening, a woman approached him in downtown Seattle to congratulate him on the collection of colorful images.
“She recognized me from the bio she saw with the exhibit at the store, and wanted to tell me that she loved it and planned to buy one of the prints for her boyfriend,” Salesin said, with a laugh. “I think that’s the first time a stranger has recognized me on the street. It was kind of fun, but I imagine it would get old if it happened all the time.”
Salesin’s prowess with a camera should also garner donations for a charity that supports community-based programs in Central Asia. All proceeds generated by sales from the exhibit, “Down to Earth, Close to Heaven: The People of Bhutan,” will go to the Central Asian Institute.
Although delighted with the arrangement, Salesin said it came about by chance. A friend, Mike Hawley, invited him to go to Bhutan, a small country in the Himalayas between India and Tibet. Hawley is founder of a non-profit group called Friendly Planet, and is producing a series of children’s books on what it’s like to grow up in different cultures. The latest project is a book called “Growing up in Bhutan.”
Salesin became one of the trip photographers, taking thousands of shots during the excursion. When he returned, he exhibited a few in a small cafe near the UW. That’s where Keith Pleas, owner of a store called Fugio, saw them.
“He wanted to exhibit them in the store, which sells goods from the Himalayas,” Salesin said. “When he started talking about sales, I told him I didn’t want to take any money for the photos. That’s when we started talking about a charitable donation.”
The photos capture the contrasts that make Bhutan a special place. Tradition is evidenced by whirling dancers and celebrants at festivals who wear the colorful national dress. The fests themselves are conducted for the people rather than for tourists. On the other hand, Salesin said, the Bhutanese are open to new experiences.
“They’ve embraced the Internet and the government promotes very frank AIDS education,” he said.
The trip, he said, was a wonderful experience, and he is still in e-mail contact with friends he made there, some of whom he hopes to bring to the United States for a visit some day. Donating proceeds from the pictures, he said, may in a small way repay the area for its hospitality and open embrace of an outsider.
“I hope the sales do well,” he said. “They did an opening and are talking about doing an event for the closing. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.”