Photos Reveal Contemporary Southeast Asia in Black and White

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (January 25, 2004) — Life today in Vietnam, Myanmar (Burma), Cambodia, and Laos is the subject of "Touching the Mekong: A Southeast Asian Sojourn," more than 50 black and white works by the fine-art photographer Andrea Baldeck, to be exhibited Thursday, February 3 through Thursday, February 24 at the James W. Palmer Gallery of Vassar College. The college will hold a reception at the gallery with Baldeck on Friday, February 11, from 4:30-6:00 p.m.

Baldeck's work focuses on the enduring influence of ancient philosophies and religions — Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism — on societies in transition, where currents of tradition and change are constantly reshaping the cultures of the Mekong River basin. Through these recent photographs of the region's architecture, landscapes, and people (from 2001-2002), Touching the Mekong offers her kaleidoscopic view of an area that slipped off the front page with the end of American involvement in the Vietnam War.

"To travel in Southeast Asia is to be humbled by its layers of history and humanity, and by the realization that in a lifetime one could barely scratch the surface of understanding," Baldeck explained. "But what a rich and tantalizing surface!"

Making careful use of light and shadow, contrast and composition, Baldeck said the photographs in this exhibition, and in the accompanying book, Touching the Mekong, University Museum Publications), are "A personal account of textured, nuanced, enigmatic moments in a fascinating world."

Baldeck returned to photography — an old passion — in the early 1990s, after careers in music (French horn and flute) and medicine (internist and anaesthesiologist in Philadelphia-area hospitals). In fact her experiences as a volunteer doctor at H?pital Albert Schweitzer, in Deschapelles, Haiti, inspired her first photography book, The Heart of Haiti (1996), as well as solo exhibitions from that collection. Her other books include Talismanic (1998), and Venice: A Personal View (1999).

The Gallery Holly Snapp in Venice, Italy, has held two solo shows of Baldeck's photographs, and her work has also been widely shown in the U.S., including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA, the Century Club, Rochester, NY, and earlier at Vassar College.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Vassar College, and an Alpha Omega Alpha graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Andrea Baldeck was elected to the Vassar College board of trustees in 1995.

The James W. Palmer Gallery is located in the College Center on the Vassar campus. For gallery hours, or to arrange accommodations for people with disabilities, call (845) 437-5370. Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential liberal arts college founded in 1861.

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations or information on accessibility should contact Campus Activities Office at (845) 437-5370. Without sufficient notice, appropriate space and/or assistance may not be available.

Vassar College is a highly selective, coeducational, independent, residential liberal arts college founded in 1861.

This article was posted on Tuesday, January 25th, 2005.