Kathmandu :

Steel Butterflies, Tibet 2006,’ a photography exhibition by Sarah Schorr opened at Gallery Nine on June 11. Peter K Moran, executive director of the commission for educational exchange between the United States and Nepal was the honoured guest for the evening. Sarah is a literature student and has completed her graduation from Wesleyan University. She has done her MFA in Photography and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts. Her first solo exhibition opened at Scalo Gallery in New York and since then there was no looking back. ‘Steel butterflies’ is her first exhibition in Nepal.

Lhasa, which means the place of Gods, is the holy city of Tibetans and a popular pilgrimage site for Buddhist from all around the world. This image of Lhasa has been engraved in our mind for years. But the other picture is least known to us. Schorr has beautifully captured the stark reality, which has been shadowed for years. When she visited the place two years back she noticed a group of pink salons. “By day they are salons and bars and by night they are brothels for young prostitutes with storefronts distinguished by glowing pink light,” says Schorr.

The doll-like nature of the women as they sat in the store window left a daunting impression on her. Therefore in 2006 she returned back to photograph the exteriors and went on capturing the innocence, curiosity and the vulnerability of the women in the brothels. Each photograph has its own story to tell.

The pictures Schorr has captured are real bold and loud and they speak a lot about the lives of the women. The exhibition is aptly called Steel Butterflies as the young, vibrant and innocent beauty of the girls captured are beautiful and unique in their own ways like butterflies. But at the same time she has shown the irony of them being tied down by the depiction of metal.

She has tried to show the artificiality of their lives and though beautiful from outside they really seem tough from inside. The butterflies are beautiful but sad they are made of steel. The exhibition is open till June 21.