Michael Nye is a lawyer from San Antonio, but decades ago he became fascinated with photography and started roaming the world – Siberia, refugee camps, rain forests, war zones – in search of images.

Four and a half years ago, he began interviewing the hungry, people who rely on soup kitchens and food banks for food, and taking photographs of them. That has had the greatest effect on him, he says.

About two years ago, Nye came to Fort Wayne and spent a few days here, interviewing and photographing clients of Community Harvest Food Bank.

Nye’s work on the project is now complete, and on Aug. 28 his exhibit, “Hunger and Resilience: Photographs and Audio Stories by Michael Nye,” will open at the Mimi and Ian Rolland Art and Visual Communications Center at the University of Saint Francis, 2702 Spring St.

A reception that is open to the public will take place Aug. 28. It will be free and have hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar.

Nye will present a lecture before the reception at 6 p.m. in the North Campus at the university.

In an interview when he came to Fort Wayne in 2008, Nye talked of the different people he had interviewed and photographed – musicians, accountants, builders. He heard stories of penniless people stealing food to feed their children, of a man who plotted to rob a grocery for food for his children, a woman who lived in her car and worked as a prostitute to get money to feed her children, of a man whose life fell apart after being hurt on the job.

Mostly, though, he tells stories of people’s lives, good and bad, in their own words. His goal is to get people to recognize the urgency of hunger in America and realize almost anyone’s life could change suddenly.

The exhibit will run through Sept. 26, with hours 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays.

An open invitation

The little town of Berne dedicated its new 160-foot-tall clock tower scarcely two weeks ago and already the city of Bern, Switzerland, has found a way to make it work for them, too.

Private citizens funded Berne’s tower, which cost $3 million and has a clock that features a carillon that plays 1,000 different songs, including Indiana schools’ fight songs and Indiana standards. It was dedicated with much fanfare July 31, and the hope is it will drive a little bit of tourism Berne’s way and perhaps encourage new businesses.

It turns out officials in the original Bern were a little bothered when they heard the news of a similar tower being built in Indiana. They thought it would mock their landmark tower and that someone was going to try to develop a Disneyland version of it.

Berne Mayor John Minch, who visited Bern, assured them it would be just an American version of the clock tower.

Well, all feathers have been smoothed. Last week, we got an unusual e-mail from officials in Bern, congratulating Berne on its new clock tower and expressing a certain amount of pride that their tower helped inspire the tower in Berne.

Bern’s tower, called the Zytglogge, was built in the 1400s, and its clock was installed in the 1500s. It is a World Cultural Heritage Site and offers an excellent view of the city, and on a clear day you can see the Alps from the tower, tourist officials said.

Adding to their compliments, Bern officials offered a special deal. Anyone from Berne who visits Bern need only present an ID or other document at the tourist information desk at the Bern railway station to get a free tour of the original clock tower, including the medieval clockwork and astronomical clock.

The catch is, you’ve only got a year, until Aug. 1, 2011.