After Peruvian photographer Moises Saman’s inspiring Chapel talk as Belmont Hill’s most recent Kageyama-Hunt Global Speaker in early February, an online photo exhibit of Saman’s photos are currently available on the school website, titled “The Photographs of Moises Saman.”
The online slideshow gallery highlights a few of the works Saman displayed during the school-wide Chapel, but also features many more that were not shown during his speech. Each and every image in the gallery holds immense emotional weight and invokes a sense of curiosity from its viewer, capturing an individual subject (“SYRIA”/Young Men Waiting For Bread, “SUDAN”/Yusef Alnuw) or focusing on a wider landscape of a modern-day issue (“SYRIA”/An Empty Mass Grave). Saman seems to focus his work on themes of war, violence, oppression, and protest, but also includes subtle elements of hope and optimism in his works. Saman does not stick to one coloring style across his wide variety of photographs, with some of his pieces utilizing vibrant contrast in color and shading, while others are simply in black and white and heavily emphasize the utilization of shadows.
A selected few in the gallery feature analytical statements by students from Ms. Zener’s AP Art History class, by Max Ramanathan ’25, Lucien Davis ’26, and Juan Pablo Fernandez del Castillo ’25, as well as from Will Raymond ’27 from Mr. Duarte’s Advanced Photography class, and JJ Pena ’26 (Panel photographer). In an accompanying statement by Mr. Duarte, Chair of Visual Arts at Belmont Hill, he states, “As naturally curious creatures we feel an insatiable craving to make sense of and find personal meaning in the frame of an image and its unknown actors. Whether as windows or mirrors, photographs can estrange us from what is familiar and comfortable or offer a glimpse of the familiar in circumstances that may initially read as foreign, tumultuous and, even, terrifying.”
The Panel would like to thank Mr. Saman for his impactful Chapel talk and encourage each and every student to take the opportunity to visit the school website and observe Mr. Saman’s works in the online gallery.