Linda Connor’s exhibit Heavens at the Parts Gallery is 87 black and white photographs taken in Africa, South America, India and Asia. Is this mere travelogue posing as art? I overheard a viewer looking at one photograph with special interest, not because of its beauty or artistry but because he would soon be traveling to India. The images may be familiar from the pages of National Geographic but the photographs extend beyond mere cultural documentation. The images stand as signifiers of cultural difference since we view them as outsiders – voyeurs of a culture different from our own. Looking at a photograph like “Ceremonial Vessels” we wonder at rituals and a way of life that we do not understand. Since Westerners live in a culture where speed is of the essence; where the closest we have to myth is Elvis, and places of worship are fast food joints, we can only look at the beautiful image “Young Man Calloused by Prostration, Tibet, 1993” with a combination of longing and awe at what this image represents — a culture born centuries ago and still enduring. The artist has interspersed the photographs with old astronomical images from the Lick Observatory at UC Santa Cruz. This seemed at first baffling – What does the image of stars, dated July 17, 1912 have to do with the juxtaposed image of the “Sloe Eyed Girl, 1989” – but it makes sense since like the heavens, the way of life depicted has changed and continues to alter. The contrast in dates from 1912 and 1989 although signifying the timelessness of the heavens and an ancient way of life also demonstrates how quickly culture and the heavens can change. The skies in 1912 are different now though we do not recognize it, just as the girl no longer exists in 1997. The significance of time is underscored by the use of a platinum print process that is used on long-lasting archival pictures for museums. The artist is not only concerned with documenting other cultures but preservation of images like “Blind Musicians, Kashmir, India, 1985” that will not reoccur. The printing process also accentuates the textures and contrasts in the black and white images. In “Tree Decorated with Ceremonial Cloth, Bali, 1991” patterns of the cloth mix with roots of the tree, connecting them in meaning and texture. The exhibit presents beautiful and striking photography and we are reminded once again (though we may ask is it necessary?) that the Western way of life, though producing one of the highest GNPs is not superior to cultures that have existed and endured for centuries.