It is a friendship that began at Memorial between two students: Jamaican student Machel Rayner and photographer Dustin Silvey.

The collision of their worlds and their vastly different experiences growing up served as the impetus of Mr. Silvey’s new photo exhibition, Beyond the Palms, now on display at the First Space Art Gallery in the Queen Elizabeth II Library on the St. John's campus.

Mr. Rayner recently took Mr. Silvey back to the slums of Kingston, Jamaica – the place he was born and raised. Mr. Silvey took more than 3,000 photos on the trip; 22 of those photos have made it to the walls of the First Space Gallery.

Those select photos document daily life in Trenchtown, a place with the highest murder rate in the world located in a country not at war. According to Mr. Silvey, he set out to document the beauty of the people and the place, and also the violence and poverty to draw attention to the appalling conditions and hardships locals endure just to survive.

“This exhibition aims to show an area few tourists who travel to Jamaica see,” he said. “The photos show an area and a group of people who have been forsaken beyond the palm trees and the beaches.”

Mr. Silvey, who is also a lab instructor at the School of Human Kinetics and Recreation at Memorial, has travelled to more than 60 countries in the last 10 years. His photo essays have been featured in national publications like the Globe and Mail.   

“Some people think it is a lucky shot,” said Mr. Silvey. “That is kind of the rudest thing you can say to a photographer, it’s not like when you have been sitting there for six hours on the roof of a building waiting for stuff to happen, it’s not luck, positioning yourself and knowing how to use your camera and knowing your settings… It is the same with paintings, with videos, there is no luck to it, it is being prepared and knowing what you want.”

None of the places Mr. Silvey has travelled prepared him for the slums of Kingston.

“When we got there…my jaw almost hit the floor,” he said.

Thanks to Mr. Rayner and his family, Mr. Silvey had access to gangs and a behind-the-scenes view of many Jamaicans' daily life, which included getting shot at while he was attempting to take pictures.

“If I want to make it, I’ve got to do something that people aren’t willing to do. If I want to get a picture that everyone else doesn’t have, I have to be willing to go to places that other people aren' going.”

The grand opening of Beyond the Palms takes place on Friday, Jan. 16, from 6-7:30 p.m. on the main floor of the QEll Library on the St. John’s campus. The event is free and refreshments will be served.

For more information on Mr. Silvey, please visit his website.

For further details please visit the QEII Library website.

For gallery hours, please visit QEII Hours.