Bruce Strong (second from left) speaks to visitors at the “Call to Me, Balkans” exhibition at the National Gallery in Sarajevo. (Photo by Claudia Strong)
Newhouse Professor Marks 30 Years Since Dayton With Balkan Photo Exhibition
Snapping photos with just a smartphone, spent four months traveling across southeastern Europe to create a powerful collection of images that capture life in a region still shaped by its history of conflict and resilience.
The results from Strong’s overseas endeavor are now on display. The new “Call to Me, Balkans” photo exhibition is open on campus in the Schine Student Center’s Panasci Lounge. The exhibition, also simultaneously on display in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, features black-and-white images from Strong’s travels to the region during his 2023 sabbatical and two subsequent trips.
The timing is significant: “Call to Me, Balkans” commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords, the agreement that ended the Bosnian war of the 1990s.
“‘Call to Me, Balkans’ captures the rich, diverse and interconnected cultures of the region,” says Strong, an associate professor of visual communications who teaches photo and video storytelling at the . “It celebrates the resilience and beauty of an area heavily impacted by such a devastating conflict.”
Strong has said he hopes the exhibition also fosters connections with Central New York’s Bosnian immigrant community.
Strong is The Alexia Endowed Chair at the Newhouse School. Through grants, scholarships and special projects for photographers, filmmakers and other visual creatives, promotes the power of visual storytelling to shed light on significant issues around the world.
The November opening of the exhibition at Schine featured remarks from , dean of the Newhouse School; , senior associate dean for academic affairs in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs; , professor and undergraduate director of Maxwell’s anthropology department; and Imam , assistant dean for religious and spiritual life at Hendricks Chapel.
The exhibition is curated and designed by his wife, , the curator of communications, design and exhibitions for The Alexia, who also teaches graphic design and writing courses at Newhouse. Strong’s travels took him through Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia and Slovenia.
Strong developed the Schine exhibition with support from the Newhouse School’s , which funds faculty and student research. The National Gallery exhibition in Sarajevo was funded by the University’s .
Strong said he challenged himself on this project to work exclusively with a smartphone in order to push creative boundaries and prove that powerful storytelling doesn’t always require expensive equipment.
This project has already received international acclaim, with work from the exhibition awarded by the Sarajevo Photography Festival and featured in China as a solo exhibition at the Pingyao International Photo Festival in 2024.
