The troubled attitude: When I first glanced at your thumbnails and like most images I see of the region I feel a bit offended. When we go to the zoo we photograph the great apes and tigers and lemurs and show them because they are unusual, different.. so we photograph them in their cages and gawk at the images. I'm offended when we do this with people no matter how different their culture is from ours. These are humans and if the most we can come up with that makes them interesting is their difference in looks then I feel offended.
IMO.. it's not enough to show the common pictures we see of these people that only show their differences in appearance. Tour bus loads of tourists do that. We have a greater responsibility to these places we visit.
I understand the depth of my time in Asia has led me to think differently than my fellow westerners about many things.. and perhaps its over the top to actually feel offended about such pictures. It just seemed an appropriate time to vent..
@ Steve
Frankly, if the images offend you then in all respect it might in your end, or perhaps is it a good evocation of feelings rather? These photos are my personal and were shot with respect and interaction with the people, however if this is your reaction perhaps merely means that they reached you in some ways. These people touched me and visiting people living traditional lives frequent do, or local munks etc. I do enjoy to photograph people living natural lives, simply because they have much character to their faces. I did so with respect for them, and nope I have not made a dime on these images and do not plan to. It was far from photographing monkeys in a cage, but if that is your view that is your view and reaction. Frankly, when photographing animals I even feel respect inside and do it with trying establish eye contact for a "sort of" acceptance. I respected those people in the village and I showed that also on my visit, which should be obvious of what I wrote. I believe my images are not same as tourists, but perhaps their lives are different enough to strike you, or perhaps you have seen too many poor beggars around Asia to feel respect for poor, I dont know frank? Like you living overseas has made me change in how I view, but in respect to many people, and especially those at the lower end of what is referred to "material" life, however suffice not to write bashing on LL. While I have been in Asia only 8 years and all across here I have lived different countries in near 18. And no, if you go where tourist go you will not get these images, those will be ones far more of a show and display, not of real. At such time my camera tend to not make a shot. Exception was perhaps the floating market in BKK, however... sad to only see nearly only tourist there, but I visited early to be able get some interaction and not scores of tourists in photos. However, that is also a unfortunate or not development; culture and traditional lives being "developed" to a level of display. It touches life to see the real instead.
What burned me up even more was the mention of the type of equipment used. Once upon a time the deal was to offer the natives a polaroid... or even a string of worthless beads before polas were invented. Let's buy Manhattan! Somehow, pushing that sort of pay-packet into somebody' face feels even more offensive to me than it might otherwise have been.
@ Rob,
In respect I really believe you got my mention of equipment backwards. Do you think any of those people cared if I used MFDB or the cheapest DSLR or a Holga? Actually, apart from the one drunk man that I did not post not a single one asked me for a dime. Respect. My addition of gear was a last minute addition to my post and for the B.S. people who only think too much of gear. That equipment is my personal and was big $$ sacrifice to me, in the end it is a mere tool and I use it because it yields quality on technical side, end far more enjoyment than DSLR to me and for portraits far better image quality than anything else in my bag. Should we hide our what some label fancy camera in closet when visit poor people? To me, it was my tool of choice for image, nothing else. However, well worth to mention is that the Leaf has a big 6cm by 7cm display that frank worked very well for the people in the village to view their image instantly. That itself was a sheer enjoyment to view. Why? Because of their excitement when seeing themselves. As far as camera else I think they do not know and simply do not have opinion.
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@ General
Actually, Steve McCurry's green-eyed to me is one that magnificent invoke emotion. Is it not the point of how the photos are used?
My visit to that village was out of interest, and photographing them brought me knowledge, feeling and impact. Is it of this or sitting infront of computer bashing and complaining @LL that is of worth?
Regards
Anders