Photographer, filmmaker, writer and storyteller, Ben Lenzner '98, returns to the Bronx and to Horace Mann to share some of his recent photographic and cinematic explorations in the Fisher Hall Art Gallery from October 4th-30th, 2011.

The multi-dimensional Van Gujjar Community Photo Project visually investigates one of the last indigenous, nomadic buffalo herding communities of northern India. Practicing Islam and living for generations on the margins of the northern Indian states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, Ben’s work from 2008 and 2009 explores the Van Gujjar annual migration and recent social activism affecting the Van Gujjars. Through multiple eyes, the Van Gujjar Community Photo Project offers insight into a community that even in northern India tends to be defined by stereotypes.

The exhibition is diverse, showcasing a recent photographic series on the human being within the landscapes of the United States and our impact, big and small, obvious and intense, on our natural surroundings. The exhibition also showcases recent short films that Ben produced while a MFA student in Toronto, Canada. Films such as The Backwards Rider (currently touring worldwide in the Bicycle Film Festival, this weekend at the Barbican in London, UK and in two weeks at the Sydney Opera House), along with other recent short films, Granma on the Corner, Himalaya: History of our Home, Southern Sudan Referendum and the Gardiner Expressway will be screening continuously at The Fisher Hall Art Gallery at Horace Mann School from October 4-30, 2011.

For additional information please email Ben Lenzner at ben.lenzner@gmail.com