Search online for images of the village of Bereba, in Burkina Faso, Africa, and you see photos of people and fabrics that look like colors and patterns colliding in joyful chaos, or dusty men chiseling angular blocks out of ochre-colored earth from a quarry. You are likely seeing the photos of David Pace.
He’s a San Francisco-based photographer and professor who was resident director of Santa Clara University’s study abroad program in West Africa. He’s traveled to Bereba many times, coming back with more and more photos, building up a decade-long body of work.
He’s shown them in Philadelphia, New York, Massachusetts, Portland. Carmel’s Center for Photographic Art is next, showing “four chapters” of this work: markets, work, travel and play (the latter consisting of the village residents’ twisty dance moves frozen in the hot night by Pace’s flash).
These photos represent more to Pace than just a travelogue or a chronicle.
“The people are beautiful, friendly, fun. Life in the village is endlessly fascinating,” Pace says in a statement. “On a deeper level, I am gaining a new perspective on what it means to be human, the importance of community, and what is really necessary to live a meaningful life.”
If photos can transport the imagination of the viewer to another place, maybe they can also deliver philosophical messages to the soul.
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