A country that was ravaged by war is the subject of an art exhibit opening tonight at the Bermuda Society of Arts.

Photographer Alexander Winfield said his Sierra Leone: Grey exhibit is a series of simple portraits.

"For the most part, there are several landscapes, an attempt to show Sierra Leone and its people as they are, and free them from the abattoir filters of the evening news," he said.

"The portraits represent a cross-section of Sierra Leone life, the frames hosting a variety of professions, personalities and moments."

When asked why he chose to use the medium of black and white versus colour, he said: "The photographs have been printed on 11"x14" Black and White Matte Paper.

"Orson Welles, a pre-eminent director, once said that 'Black and white was the actor's friend.'

"Colour has an insidious way of distracting from the directness of expression found in a human face, the nuances of an arched brow, the subtleties discovered in the turn of the lips.

"By shooting and printing in black and white as opposed to colour, I bring the audience a little closer to the humanity of the subject by removing all extraneous elements apart from the human face. I'd rather avoid the classical National Geographic shot, as bright and beautiful and perfect as they are, they tend to emphasise the foreignness of their subject, the strangeness.

"It's a way to sell magazines. My goal is to emphasise the sameness between audience and subject, to bring out the qualities they share."

He added of the few nonportrait shots, that he hoped these would help to put the into people in context.

"And to give one a sense of the atmosphere of the land," he said.

"It is a rough place, Sierra Leone, and it once was the setting of atrocious violence. That the people who still live there have retained the trick of a spontaneous smile after all that — well, therein lies a message in itself."

Ten percent of the proceeds from the sales will benefit an orphanage in Sierra Leone.

"The Orphanage is called the SOS Canada House," he said.

"About 30 former street children live there, most of whom were orphaned by the war or by the following period of extreme poverty.

"The orphanage is located in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone, in a reasonably large town called Koidu. It was during my documenting of this orphanage's construction that I conceived and executed the Sierra Leone: Grey project.

"I had been asked to document — and act as a general assistant to — one Jason Dudek."

Mr. Dudek is a co-founder of the orphanage, Mr. Winfield said: "Jason Dudek, who was, and still is, really the driving force behind the orphanage.

"He founded and is the director of an organisation called AEGIS, whose primary thesis is that Western-type aide to Third World Nations is usually hampered by an unfamiliarity of the realities of life and business in a war-ravaged country, and as such any NGO (non-governmental organisation) usually moves slowly and inefficiently when delivering aide. "Thus AEGIS has hit upon the idea of partnering with local charities, funding them, but allowing them the freedom to operate as they see fit while maintaining a high standard of accountability.

"The SOS Canada house is run by Koidu Charity Association for Children in Need.

"I've known Mr. Dudek for nearly a decade now, we are old school chums and have shared a number of adventures of rather epic proportions.

"He's a Winnipeg man, so by sheer virtue of his having survived this long I know he's worth his salt."

For more information on the organisation visit: www.aegisdev.org.