Syracuse professor’s photo exhibition showcases Bosnia’s resilience and heritage
SU professor’s photo exhibit showcases Bosnia’s resilience, heritage
Prof. Bruce Strong’s Call to Me, Balkans documentary project is on display in the Panasci Lounge.
Visual communications associate professor Bruce Strong’s Call to Me, Balkans photo exhibition – a reflection of life since the Bosnian War – opened Thursday as the Dayton Accords’ signing marked its 30th anniversary.
After a missed opportunity to cover the war from 1992-1995 in the former Yugoslavia with a fellow photojournalist in the early 1990s, the region always stuck in Strong’s mind.
“It was sort of a call to listen and to look … to be friends with people and to grow through that,” said Strong, who is the Alexia endowed chair. “It called to me, but I learned through it.”
Joined by his wife Claudia who curated and designed the exhibit, Strong spent several months during a 2023 sabbatical on two trips capturing photos of the region using only his iPhone.
Nothing that 12,000 Bosnians settled in New York after the war before the turn of the century, Strong said he hopes that his images allow people to see the once war-torn country as it is now.
“Some don’t have the opportunity to go back,” Strong said. “This would hopefully be an updated opportunity for them to see the current images.”
Call to Me, Balkans is the first photography exhibition in Panasci Lounge since the Schine Student Center’s remodeling in 2021. Strong hopes that the exhibition will serve to educate Americans unfamiliar with Bosnia, particularly SU students, on life in the region.
“It is in a place that students will see,” Strong said. “Hopefully, because they’re moving through here, maybe they’ll ponder on some of the writing as well as the imagery.”
