Photographic Journey Through

Whitcomb High School senior Maya Robinson poses with a photo that she took whil on an exchange program in India. For her senior project, she has collected photographs from dozens of Central Vermont people who have been on foreign exchange programs.

The Eyes of Exchange Students

By Maya Robinson

The Chandler Gallery in Randolph invites you to take a photographic journey around the world in an upcoming exhibit "Seeing Eye To Eye," which opens this Saturday, Oct. 21.

"A picture is worth a thousand words," especially when you’re surrounded by people speaking Norwegian, Hindi or Japanese. Which may be why many international youth exchange students try to capture their experience through the visual language of photography. "Seeing Eye to Eye" is a collection of images taken over the past 35 years by and of young people who have spent an academic year living with host families on six continents.

When you are immersed in a totally different culture, you look at your new surroundings with fresh eyes and this perspective is shared through these photographs. When you are 17 and you rub noses with an Australian Aboriginal elder or watch the election of a new Pope from St. Peter’s Square, you never look at the world in quite the same way again.

Previous and current exchange students were asked to submit images that captured what it was like to live in a different culture and share it with those at home. Central Vermont has several successful youth exchange programs run through Rotary International and American Friends Service that have impacted the students who travel and their communities at home.

Bethel Rotary has had an active exchange program for the past 35 years and some of the images are of Bethel Resident Linda Orr’s exchange to Australia in 1972, when she photographed the Sydney Opera House being constructed. Other images are of Bethel Rotary students who are exploring the world this year. Kelsey Huyghebaert of South Royalton submitted images of Belgian bicycles and Christine Meagher of Rochester is shown covered in wreaths of flowers as she arrived in Thailand.

Unforgettable moments are also captured by students from Randolph, Norwich, Braintree, Brandon, and Keene, N.H., showing how youth view and experience the world.

Senior Project

The exhibit is curated by Maya Robinson, who was a Bethel Rotary exchange student last year in India. She took 6,000 photographs during her exchange and some of her most interesting ones will be part of this Chandler exhibit. She has been planning this display over the past two years as her senior project at Whitcomb High School. This past weekend she worked with Scott Putney, the Bethel Youth Exchange Coordinator, to select three new area candidates to explore the world next school year, continuing to make this one of the most active programs in the country.

There will be an opening reception for "Seeing Eye to Eye" Saturday, Oct. 21 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Chandler Gallery. The public is urged to attend. The exhibit runs from Oct. 21-Nov. 19. The reception will be followed by a performance, "Dancing through Life," (see article in this section) which will be directed by another Whitcomb student, Josh Turk, as his Senior Project. This performance is also free and open to the public.

As part of this exhibit, Chandler Gallery will host a panel discussion about exploring the world through photography entitled, "Pack your Camera," Tuesday, Nov. 14 from 6:30-7:30 p.m. The topic of using technology and art to capture your travels will be discussed by several area photographers.

"Seeing Eye To Eye" at Chandler has been generously supported by the Lamson Howell Foundation, which supports projects involving youth, international education and the arts in the Randolph area.

For more information, contact Maya Robinson at 234-5516 or Rebecca McMeekin at 728-9878.

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