IMAGES OF HOPE & COMPASSION
Going by the number of people who turned up and shared glowing reviews, Lionel Leo’s first photo exhibition – ‘Life Goes On’, at ION Art Gallery last May – was a solid success. A local gallery has made a standing offer to mount a show next year; Japan and Hong Kong have expressed interest. The present show may also travel within the region. The former architect turned real estate investor and businessman opened up to Solitaire about his prodigious if littleglimpsed talent.
Some photographs in the exhibition date back to 2006, and you’ve been photographing since you were in your teens. What took you so long to organise an exhibition? And what convinced you that the time for it has come?
A solo exhibition was always a personal dream just waiting for the ‘right time’. A dream like this can remain a dream forever. I didn’t want to end up like Vivian Maier, a brilliant photographer who worked as a nanny. All her negatives and slides—100,000 of them— were discovered only after she died and were auctioned off.
There are a thousand excuses not to ever show my work in a serious way and rely simply on social media to post pictures here and there; I was contented in being a decent amateur in a very safe space. But as life goes on, it always comes back to why we do what we do in the first place. I’m finally embracing my own calling and would accept whatever the outcome of displaying what I love doing and have worked on passionately for many years.
Encouragement from family and friends was always helpful. This exhibition will be a milestone in what I have been doing all these years; with this, hopefully, I can evolve to the next stage of growth in my creativity.
The other important reason for doing this was that something good must come from it, giving back, thus my support for the Nepalese children was a deciding factor.
Part of the proceeds from the sale of prints will benefit The Nepal Initiative. What is your connection to that nonprofit that supports children’s welfare and education in Nepal?
The heart-wrenching human trafficking stories of young children from the Badi community, a traditionally untouchable Hindu caste in Western Nepal, were just too tragic to ignore.
Snatched from their homes and sold by strangers, friends and even family members, 15,000 women and 5,000 girls are trafficked out of Nepal each year. Many are forced to become sex slaves before they reach the age of ten. Once sold to a brothel, it is nearly impossible for them to leave alive.
Without help, there is no future to speak of where historical and social culture has doomed them to stigma by birth.
The Nepal Initiative (TNI) was started by an ex-banker friend who introduced me to what he and his family are doing to support these kids. It is a small Singapore set-up, and it relies on a small group of equally passionate supporters for small donations and putting these kids through school and giving them a place to live.
TNI partners with the Light House Foundation out of Nepal, a very wellrun and established organisation where these children are housed. We now sponsor 38 kids – and growing, all of whom we know personally and visit every year. They have so little but possess the largest dreams and hope and there are wonderful success stories. I can go on, but this is the gist of it. –MSA