From Jan. 21 to March 6 in the HUB-Robeson Center's Art Alley and exhibit cases, "Traveling Mercies: Roads to Activism" will be on display on Penn State's University Park campus. The photography exhibit features work by 1972 Penn State alumnus Aldo Magazzeni.
In October 2007, Magazzeni founded Traveling Mercies, a non-profit foundation dedicated to helping others while working to remove barriers between cultures so individuals can share their strengths, assets, and blessings with each other.
Magazzeni has photographed images of the places, the people, and the work he has experienced during his travels, which stand as a visual record of his passion for bringing hope, health, dignity, and equality to some of the poor and neglected people of the world. “The photographs give a voice, not to me or to the photo, but to the people… They provide a way for me to capture and remember them; to record a relationship and an experience with the people I was meeting,” he said.
This exhibit features more than 50 photographs, and some artifacts and articles of customary clothing of Afghanistan, as well as photographs from Kenya, Haiti, and Mexico. Magazzeni will also give a talk about his work at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 23, in the HUB Auditorium.
Magazzeni was born in Abruzzo, Italy, and lived in a rural mountain village, poor and damaged by the effects of World War II. At the age of six, he immigrated to Philadelphia with his parents. He attended Penn State, where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in business logistics in 1972.