Contact: Karyn Brown

STARKVILLE, Miss.—An Argentinian photographer recognized internationally for combining his art with humanitarian efforts will visit Mississippi State early next month.

Sebastián Suki Beláustegui comes to the university March 8 for a 6-8 p.m. address in Section U of the Colvard Student Union’s second-floor Bill R. Foster Ballroom.

Free to all, the presentation will spotlight some of his efforts to document cultural diversity, specifically among minority communities and tribes.

Also free to all is “Africa in the Americas: The Heritage of African Communities in the Americas,” an exhibit of Beláustegui’s work on display through March 24 at the art department’s Visual Arts Center Gallery at 808 University Drive.

Self-taught in documentary photography, Beláustegui has extensively chronicled since 1991 life among Latin America’s minority tribes. These and his other images have been featured over the years in National Geographic, Time, Newsweek and other major publications.

His massive—more than three pounds—2003 book, “Guardians of Time: Portraits of the Spirit of Latin America,” illuminates more than two dozen native communities in eight countries. The book’s prologue is provided by Nobel Prize winner José Saramago of Portugal.

Beláustegui now is working on two additional books, “Africa in the Americas” and “Tribal People of Asia.” For more biographical information, see http://sebastian-suki-belaustegui.format.com.

“Suki’s work really tries to bring awareness about cultural diversity, and on some level, it rescues the forgotten communities around the world,” said Karina Zelaya, MSU assistant professor of Spanish.

“The thing that really sets his work apart from others is his use of light in a metaphorical sense,” she continued. “His photography looks into someone’s soul and captures their sentiment. He thinks of himself as beyond a photographer, more as a humanitarian.”

Beláustegui’s MSU visit and the related event are supported by the College of Arts and Sciences’ Institute for the Humanities and classical and modern languages and literatures department, along with the College of Architecture, Art and Design’s art department.

For more on the March 8 program, contact Karyn Brown, arts and sciences communication director, at 662-325-6650 or kbrown@deanas.msstate.edu.

For more on the gallery display, contact Lori Neuenfeldt, the art department’s gallery director, at 662-325-2973 or LNeuenfeldt@caad.msstate.edu.

Information about the College of Arts and Sciences and its units is found at www.cas.msstate.edu; the College of Architecture, Art and Design and its units, at www.caad.msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.