Lexington, KY - Dr. Allen Grimes is pointing at one photo in a row hung along the long beige hallway. The photo shows a dark haired small girl, looking at the camera. She holds a toy in each hand, which look as if they're made from straw. She is wearing a blue cotton dress and looking at you with trepidation, or interest. Whatever she was doing a moment before, she has stopped. Dr Grimes says, "This is a girl, by the side of the road in Bali. She looked like a typical little girl."
The rest of the pictures, along the hallway, show various people from all over the world: China, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Yemen, Tibet, Kenya, Palestine, Egypt, Morocco, France, Argentina, Chile. Walking from picture to picture feels like you are traveling to some of the most interesting places in the world.
These were all photographs taken by the Grimes family, travelers who've recorded their trips in photographs for over 40 years. Allen Grimes, a physician, and his wife, Nancy, a travel agent, along with their children, Reed, Andrew and Alison, have documented unique people, places and animal life in over 100 countries. They've picked the most interesting portraits for a show in the Central Bank Gallery, in an exhibit titled "People Around the World." The faces range from a water seller in the streets of Morocco, to a street performer in France, to a Chilean surfer surveying the waves on horseback.
"Some of these people are in their normal, everyday clothes, some of them are dressed up for dances or ceremonies of one sort or the other," Allen said, "but they're all people we've run across as we've traveled around"
In many you can't help but notice the dramatic costumes - like the painted faces and headdresses of Papua New Guineans, with bones through their noses. But many of them are more remarkable in their evident, and unique, humanity. The little girl studying a stringed instrument, in a red and white striped sweater. The young lady smiling over her shoulder at you. The grandfather worn out from watching his grandchildren.
In fact, the longer I looked at these photographs, the costumes became less and less important. Why was the young lady was smiling? What games were the children playing? I came to find the people, and their lives, more interesting than their exotic surroundings or clothes. Allen echoed my thoughts: "Some experiences we've had with people who simply look different, but for the most part act just the same as all the rest of us, despite whatever attire they might have. I would say that for the vast majority of these people, you'd be able to sit down, you may not be able to talk to with language being a barrier, but all of them would be delighted to either pose or communicate in whatever way."
And Allen says that most people love to have their pictures taken, wherever they go. Most of the places they go, he says, are "off the beaten track," and don't see a lot of tourism. Before digital cameras they used to take Polaroids along, to give to their subject, but now they can just show them the digital display.
So much travel can be impersonal - often tourism comforts you with familiarity (English speaking staff, comfortable hotels, tour buses). Which also insulates you from people; often very different from yourself, often separated by language, custom, economics, skin color and religion. These portraits exemplify the human connections created by travel. "I've taken pictures over the years of buildings and monuments and waterfalls, birds and flowers, but when I really get down to it and say, 'What means the most to me - it's the people," Allen said. "When I look at a picture like this one, I can actually go back in time and remember where he was, where I was, what was going on. I think it has more meaning, it amplifies the experience... The spontaneous moments, these are all un-posed, we didn't put any of these people here."
They look very different, and sometimes they are doing things that we'd never consider doing: the man carrying a goat over his shoulders, camel riders, a water-seller carrying a sack of water. But others are just sitting, talking, smoking, smiling.
The people filling the Grimes' photographs are energetically and invigoratingly different. Beautiful and exotic and interesting. People who are living their lives exactly as we do, every day. Shopkeepers and soldiers, a young girl smiling at you, a child (who happens to be a monk) sliding down a handrail. "Looking back over the years of travel, it's the people that are the most memorable," Allen said.
You can find more of the Grimes family's photographs at their Web site - www.InTheRestOfTheWorld.com.
"People Around the World" will be on display at The Central Bank Gallery, 300 W. Vine St., through Jan. 16. For more information, call (859) 253-6161.