Beyond Tibet

The explosion in the number of photography exhibitions in Bangkok this year continues at Serindia with the gallery's third show since opening its doors in July, this time featuring British-born photo-journalist Luke Duggleby's "Tibet Outside Tibet", covering a subject at the core of Serindia's philosophy.

Songpan Country

The photographs have been taken since Luke first ventured to the Himalayan region in 1999 and, as the title suggests, predominately consist of the areas surrounding Tibet including India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sichuan, Yunnan, Qinghai and Gansu where Tibetan culture is alive and strong.

Many of the prints have appeared separately in some of the world's most influential newspapers and magazines. Despite this dissection between many publications, they retain a collective cohesiveness, and one is immediately impressed by the oeuvre upon entering the space.

Luke presents a cogent thesis documenting many aspects of the majestic landscape and complex culture of the Tibetan people, ranging from pilgrimages to collecting caterpillar fungus and working on ancient salt terraces. His work, however, is far superior to simple documentation; through his use of a range of techniques he often allows the already glorious subject to gleam.

In Songpan Country (2003), for example, of Tibetan horsemen riding before a forest rising up behind them, Luke manages not only to incorporate a vanishing point much in the same way as a landscape painter would, he frames it within a whitish halo as the sunshine is refracted by the wispy mist. In Dongwang Valley (2003) the use of depth of field with the blurred back and foreground focuses the eye on the crawling fungus collector with exceptional deftness.

Tibetan Catholics

He also demonstrates the ability to capture the moment such as in Yanjing (2005), of a Tibetan girl pouring brine gracefully onto her family's terrace. Of course, such a photographer is more than capable of producing outstanding portraiture and landscapes as evinced by several of the other pieces on show.

His use of shadow to obliquely separate several of his subjects is also masterful, and it is in his use of shadow that Luke, who does not consider himself an artist, produces the one work that could be called art. Deqin County (2003), of a solitary monk sitting in a small pool of light in the middle of a dark ocean, was highly commended in the Iconic category of the Travel Photographer of the Year Competition, 2006, and deservedly so.

But what is it about this one picture that makes it "Fine Art", while the others remain reportage, no matter how dexterously Luke manages to point his lens?

Art by definition must go beyond merely reproducing the subject. It must be injected with a quality of the artist's own interpretation that gives the subject new meaning. Photography, a mechanical process, makes it that much harder for the photographer to become an artist or to produce art exactly because it excels at representation.

Deqin County, by virtue of its composition - the balance of light and dark, the harmony of colour with various tones of red and orange, the arrangement of the vertical cracks in the wood lining the floor and wall, and the fall of the shadow in front of the monk as though he is meditating on something other than the scripture in his hands - draws out the depth of character of both the monk and the monastery.

Deqin Country

In short, he has created something far more pleasurable in this one image than all the others combined.

The other piece that approaches this in empathetic quality is of a church in Cizhong built in 1865 titled Tibetan Catholics. However, while the composition is simple and superb, the cropping is not. The image would be far more effective without the mountain ridge line at the top.

Luke makes his worst errors with Yanjing (2005), of a Tibetan receiving the Body of Christ at a church in Tsakalho in which the left side of the face is disfigured with a blown highlight; and in Dzongchen and Tashi Monasteries (2004), the subject, a monk reading scripture in a forest, has an eye blocked by foliage. While the rest of these two images are eloquent, these defects alone should have precluded them from display.

These faults are perhaps understandable as Luke is still young, only 32, and has many years ahead of him to perfect his craft, and maybe perfect his art too.

Serindia Gallery is an offshoot of Serindia Publications that produces a range of exceptional hardcover books primarily on the Himalayas. Serindia's next event features the photography of John Wehrheim and launch of his book Taylor Camp, which chronicles the Woodstock generation from1969 to 1977, opening on December 15.

Luke Duggleby's 'Tibet Outside Tibet' will be on display until December 6 at Serindia Gallery, OP Garden, Charoen Krung Soi 36 (near Oriental Boat Pier 1). Open Daily 11am to 8pm (except Monday). Call 02-238-6410 or visit http://www.serindiagallery.com.

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