Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/04/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 10:58 PM 4/2/2008, you wrote: >Tina, >Excellent photographs, and only too real, but I deliberately do not take >photographs of such people, it probably takes off the last veneer of dignity >they have left. Besides, in India, its too easy. >Cheers >Jayanand > > > > http://www.pbase.com/image/95069931 I respectfully disagree, Jayanand. I believe it gives people a certain dignity to be photographed. Many, many years ago when I first started photographing in medical clinics in Central America, I was trying to be very respectful and only photograph the doctors and nurses as they worked. One man came up to me and asked to be photographed. He said something like - "Why are you only photographing the North Americans. Are we not good enough or handsome enough for you to use your film on us?" Since then, I have tried to show the beauty and the dignity of the people all over the world. The vast majority of the people that I photographed in India were very proud to have their photos made. In this particular photo, I would not have photographed only the mother lying there by the side of the road, but the little boy sitting there so patiently by the side of a busy highway waiting for his mother to wake up gives the photo hope - to me. I use my photos to raise money for self-help organizations and to raise awareness of conditions in other parts of the world. You would be amazed at how ignorant most North Americans are about how the rest of the world lives. I gave a talk last week about India and two of the comments were - "But all of our jobs have gone to India. Every time I get someone on the phone for any kind of tech support, they were in India. How could there be any homeless people when their economy is so much better than ours?" and "I always thought India was the dirtiest country in the world, but the people in your photos are beautiful. They make me want to visit a place I never even considered." Of all of the 47 countries I have visited so far, India is both the most beautiful and the most disturbing. I have never seen such poverty anywhere else but I have never met such gentle, kind people either. I hope other people will be able to see that in the photos that I'm working on now. Tina Tina Manley http://leicatraveler.blogspot.com/ www.tinamanley.com