I found the Eyes on Bangladesh to be a a stunning visual display of a world we would have otherwise never experienced. It’s hard to imagine life that is entirely different than the way we live here in the States, but the exhibit gave us an elegant peak into lives that were quite removed from Western influence. The part that I found most intriguing was the set of photos that documented birth in a small town in Bangladesh. I suppose it surprised me the most because I — quite ignorantly — assumed that all births occurred in hospitals. With our well-endowed hospitals, pregnancy check-ups, and pregnancy books, birth has become a stylized event. These photographs cut through all of that; they portray birth as raw, painful, and dangerous. There is nothing controlled here, and it gives these photos a sense of realness.

This exhibit also reminded me of the overwhelming inequality of the world. So many people live in poverty, without access to basic necessities (such as hospitals, pain medication for the birth, etc), and no one seems to do anything about it. To be completely honest, I don’t know how to approach such disparity. How can we get the supplies impoverished people of other countries need when we can’t take care of our own? The economic divide in this country gets steeper every year, and it seems that the wealthiest do all that is in their power to maintain the status quo. Of what value is our awareness if we are essentially incapable of helping? How can we be the country with a saving-others complex when our Supreme Court has made it even easier to buy elections? Do we even have a voice?