NYAB Event - Laurent Zylberman "A Journey in Tibet"

Laurent Zylberman "A Journey in Tibet"

Sous Les Etoiles Gallery

This event has ended.

After the riots of 14-16 March, 2008, the photographer Laurent Zylberman and the journalist Eric Meyer were among the first westerners authorized to enter in Tibet, a forbidden region under traumatized military guard and armed to the teeth. “We had the desire to place ourselves in the interstices of the economic, social and religious Tibetan society, seize people’s eyes and their relationship with each other revealing a reality they cannot talk about or voluntarily express” said Laurent Zylberman.

A Journey in Tibet is a series based on a 15-day mission through “The Top of the World”, between Lhasa, Shigatze, Giangtze and Namso Lake. This photographic journal describes the culture’s vulnerability, allowing us to discover significant internal contradictions of China’s policy for its “autonomous territory.” Each photo solicits strange, unexpected and profound poetry. This awe-inspiring environment in extreme conditions, settled by a very sparse population conveys a feeling of gravity and greatness.

This journey depicts the countryside, the mountain ranges, the plateau, valleys, streams, cities, markets, people at work, in prayer or procession. The religious feeling and behavior of friars, laymen and laywomen are discussed, as well as Tibet’s spiritual and popular rural culture which remains largely intact today.

Here we delve into a multitude of different Tibetan personalities: the totally integrated, the opportunists, the historic socialists (from families who supported the regime for generations), and those well taken care of by a regime anxious to keep a reliable local administration. It also depicts various types of Han new-comers, job seekers, taxi drivers, hotel workers and shopkeepers.

This confrontation nourishes introspection. It forces us to confront the necessary efforts to help both sides of this heterogeneous population, overcome their biases, and to convert the liability of hatred into an asset of mutual respect.

The series A Journey in Tibet is part of the book Tibet, The Last Scream written by Eric Meyer, an accredited China correspondent for various francophone medias. The publication of this diary and photobook, will be released in 2012 in three languages and countries (USA, France, and Spain).