Now on view at the Sojourner Truth Library: Photographer Fran Smulcheski ’87g debuts exhibition on children in Pakistan

As a photographer, Fran Smulcheski ‘87g (Photography & Related Media) seeks to illuminate the social conditions of wherever she travels, and her latest endeavor offers an evocative glimpse into child exploitation practices in Pakistan.  

In her new exhibition “Silent Voices Echo,” on view through Oct. 14 at the Sojourner Truth Library, Smulcheski teams with Habbat Shah of Pakistan’s Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering, and Management Sciences to showcase photographic documentation of child labor in the region, juxtaposed with historic images of U.S. child labor.   

Smulcheski, a retired faculty and staff member in the School of Fine & Performing Arts, is hoping the exhibition will invite viewers “to consider the value of labor vs. education in Pakistan…and to acknowledge the exploitation of American children for cheap labor in its historically documented past,” as written in the exhibition statement.  

“Silent Voices Echo” came together through Smulcheski’s three visits to Pakistan, and is inspired by iconic imagery by photographers like Dorothea Lange and Jacob Riis. As a native Pakistani, Shah provided Urdu-to-English translation for Smulcheski and also assembled the American images for the collection, along with photos taken in areas of Pakistan affected by Taliban and tribal militia terrorism.

Their exhibition is the culmination of a photo documentary project supported in part by the United University Professionals’ Individual Development Award, a grant program providing financial assistance for faculty and professional staff members’ career growth endeavors. 

You can find more of Smulcheski’s photography, as well as her printmaking, on Instagram @frans.687.