Through The Barricades (Repost)

SyncopationSyncopation Registered Users Posts: 341 Major grins
edited August 3, 2012 in Street and Documentary
CA07191223072076-L.jpg
Syncopation

The virtue of the camera is not the power it has to transform the photographer into an artist, but the impulse it gives him to keep on looking. - Brook Atkinson- 1951

Comments

  • toragstorags Registered Users Posts: 4,615 Major grins
    edited July 30, 2012
    Great catch... excellent conversion

    Well done... thumb.gif
    Rags
  • michswissmichswiss Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 2,235 Major grins
    edited July 31, 2012
    I'm curious. Why the repost? I'm uncomfortable with the shot without some context. If it's a period shot from the 1970's, amazing. We have a lot of cultural references to place images from that time period. If it's contemporary, then some context would be helpful. Otherwise, I know this could sound harsh, it feels manipulative.
  • bfjrbfjr Registered Users Posts: 10,980 Major grins
    edited August 2, 2012
    Missed this earlier.
    Needed to say it reminds of a past time.

    All i can say.
    Benjamin
    My Galleries
    Flicker
    G+
  • MarkRMarkR Registered Users Posts: 2,099 Major grins
    edited August 2, 2012
    I have to agree with MichSwiss-- some photos work great with ambiguity, but this one needs some context: at least a time and a place. This becomes a very different photo if it's "Cambodia, 1975" vs. "Vermont, next door by the cow fence, 2012."
  • SyncopationSyncopation Registered Users Posts: 341 Major grins
    edited August 2, 2012
    The picture was taken earlier this year in Laos. Similarities with Cambodia in the 1970s are not surprising given the degree to which Laos suffered during the Vietnam war (580,000 US bombing missions, equivalent to one every eight minutes, 24 hours a day for nine years) and the extent to which much of the land remains polluted with UXO. Hillary Clinton visited Laos last month, the first Secretary of State to do so in 57 years. The US has pledged $9million this year towards the clean up of UXO. Small beer when compared to the estimated $57billion cost of bombs dropped by the US during the 60s and 70s (at 2010 values)

    As well as dealing with the legacy of the Vietnam war, Laos also faces the challenge of having little in the way of natural resources. One of the areas of sustainable development is the Bolaven Plateau where high grade coffee is now being grown for export. It was whilst we were on a tour of one of the coffee plantations that the girl in the photo walked past us with a look of curiosity and caution on her face. I took two shots, the original one and the one below.

    I chose to post the original one as it's symbolic of the struggles that she, together with many of her kind will face over the course of their lives.

    Is it exploitative? I didn't think so at the time I took the images and nor do I now. Others may think differently. If so, I'd be interested to hear the reasons why.

    CA08031211113070-L.jpg
    Syncopation

    The virtue of the camera is not the power it has to transform the photographer into an artist, but the impulse it gives him to keep on looking. - Brook Atkinson- 1951
  • MarkRMarkR Registered Users Posts: 2,099 Major grins
    edited August 2, 2012
    I do not think it is exploitive, but really needed that context to understand the image.
  • michswissmichswiss Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 2,235 Major grins
    edited August 3, 2012
    I'm going to start by saying I think the shot is well executed and that I have no problem with it. It's well done. But there's a but. It is manipulative. The shot says nothing about the girl, her life or surroundings, her family or the country. It plays to assumptions and preconceptions in the viewer's eye as presented by the photographer. She's a prop in the shot used by the photographer to tell his/her story. Exploitive? No. Documentary? No.

    I've done something similar myself. I'll post the image in a separate thread. But in short, it shows "sweat shop" conditions in China. What it doesn't show is everything I'd seen and done before and after the shot. The shot itself is what it is, but it isn't necessarily reflective of reality.
  • toragstorags Registered Users Posts: 4,615 Major grins
    edited August 3, 2012
    Ahhh... baloney

    I don't know why this guy is getting a hard time

    The shot is better than good, it's great. It can be a metaphor or simply a display of skepticism of a youngster.

    Not all photos need PJ, it is not a requirement....

    Does this image tell a story? maybe - let the viewer supply it....
    Rags
  • michswissmichswiss Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 2,235 Major grins
    edited August 3, 2012
    It's certainly an evocative image and I think I've said as much. What it's likely not is an accurate representation of her life or surroundings. And given she's the only subject, we have no way to interpret the context. I spent a lot of time next to barbed wire fence as a kid. Could I have been the subject of a rural Texas upbringing? I appreciate what Sync is sharing, but it needs more involvement (and something wider?).

    Rags, tell your version of the story.
  • toragstorags Registered Users Posts: 4,615 Major grins
    edited August 3, 2012
    michswiss wrote: »

    Rags, tell your version of the story.

    Hmmm.... A poor rural urchin fenced in: by lack of education, resources - condemned to stay there by her skepticism which I believe is a lack of courage.

    Right or wrong, that's my read.

    I have another comment on the OPs comments.

    Unfortunately Loas got stuck in the middle of a conflict.. but..

    Wars have effects: spoils or costs. There may be bombs on sites; but that is the responsibility of the winning government. They won and that is a cost of war - the clean up is the responsibility of the winner. Germany comes to mind and they lost.

    The US took care of some of our responsibility with the Hmong people
    Rags
  • lensmolelensmole Registered Users Posts: 1,548 Major grins
    edited August 3, 2012
    Syncopation wrote: »
    The picture was taken earlier this year in Laos. Similarities with Cambodia in the 1970s are not surprising given the degree to which Laos suffered during the Vietnam war (580,000 US bombing missions, equivalent to one every eight minutes, 24 hours a day for nine years) and the extent to which much of the land remains polluted with UXO. Hillary Clinton visited Laos last month, the first Secretary of State to do so in 57 years. The US has pledged $9million this year towards the clean up of UXO. Small beer when compared to the estimated $57billion cost of bombs dropped by the US during the 60s and 70s (at 2010 values)

    As well as dealing with the legacy of the Vietnam war, Laos also faces the challenge of having little in the way of natural resources. One of the areas of sustainable development is the Bolaven Plateau where high grade coffee is now being grown for export. It was whilst we were on a tour of one of the coffee plantations that the girl in the photo walked past us with a look of curiosity and caution on her face. I took two shots, the original one and the one below.

    I chose to post the original one as it's symbolic of the struggles that she, together with many of her kind will face over the course of their lives.

    Is it exploitative? I didn't think so at the time I took the images and nor do I now. Others may think differently. If so, I'd be interested to hear the reasons why.

    CA08031211113070-L.jpg

    I don't see a youngster struggling or anybody suffering from any hardship in either image I do see a youngster with a look on her face that is saying " why is this person looking at me with that strange thing in his hands" maybe you are not a stranger to this child ,but that is what I perceive from the look on her face in both images, a look of skepticism, doubt and fear . You need something to support your claims otherwise it is exploitative IMO.

    Lensmole
    http://www.lensmolephotography.com/
  • bdcolenbdcolen Registered Users Posts: 3,804 Major grins
    edited August 3, 2012
    Wow! WTF have people been imbibing. It's a terrific photo; take it or leaning it. Read into it what you will or won't. Just look at it, think about it, and move on. It is no more or less exploitative than a photo of a fat white man in madrass (sp?) shorts leaving against a Cadillac. Good Lord, people. One minute you think it's A-Okay to take a photo of some middle class elderly man slumped on a bench, asleep or drunk, and don't think the photo is either misleading or mean-spirited, and the next moment it's not okay to take a photo of an Asian girl next to a barbed wire fence unless the photographer posts a PhD thesis along with the photo.

    And Jen, context? What came before and after? That's not what still photography is about. You get, say, a 100th of one second. That's it. No before, no after. No essay. No sounds. No smells. No intentions or regrets, to steal the title of Eugene Richards's first book. You just get the single image. Cartier Bresson didn't give you the jumper having his breakfast, leaving for work, traveling his commuting route, pondering the puddle, going into a pre-jump crouch, his landing, and dinner with his wife - you just got the jumper in mid-air. Beginning and end of story. So it is with this.
    bd@bdcolenphoto.com
    "He not busy being born is busy dying." Bob Dylan

    "The more ambiguous the photograph is, the better it is..." Leonard Freed
  • RichardRichard Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,952 moderator
    edited August 3, 2012
    bdcolen wrote: »
    Wow! WTF have people been imbibing. It's a terrific photo; take it or leaning it. Read into it what you will or won't. Just look at it, think about it, and move on. It is no more or less exploitative than a photo of a fat white man in madrass (sp?) shorts leaving against a Cadillac.
    nod.gif

    There are many things that can make a photo succeed, but it's unrealistic to think that you will find all of them in a single image. I'm perfectly willing to make up my own story about this one--it might not be factual, but I'm in this for the art, I suppose, and this is a splendid, evocative capture.
    My Pics
  • MarkRMarkR Registered Users Posts: 2,099 Major grins
    edited August 3, 2012
    bdcolen wrote: »
    Wow! WTF have people been imbibing. It's a terrific photo; take it or leaning it. Read into it what you will or won't. Just look at it, think about it, and move on. It is no more or less exploitative than a photo of a fat white man in madrass (sp?) shorts leaving against a Cadillac. Good Lord, people.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor%E2%80%93observer_asymmetry
  • SyncopationSyncopation Registered Users Posts: 341 Major grins
    edited August 3, 2012
    A quick bit of history......

    Laos was declared independent in the 1954 Geneva Peace Accords. Shortly after, a civil war broke out amongst opposing groups including the North Vietnamese-supported communist Pathet Lao. A 1962 peace treaty signed by the U.S., Soviet Union, North Vietnam and other nations, ended the civil war and declared Laos a neutral country. The treaty also called for the withdrawal of foreign forces.

    Laos was therefore never 'at war' but, because of its geographical location, ongoing communist activity and the so called 'domino theory', maintaining its neutrality became a key priority for the US administration. Their approach was to begin the so called 'secret war' and to attack strategic locations (Plain of Jars/Ho Chi Minh trail) from the air, a fact that was not formally acknowledged by the US until 1994.

    Laos most certainly did not 'win the war' and in reality was probably the biggest loser as the deadly legacy of the military activity still affects large areas of the country and large numbers of the population today. Not surprisingly teaching children about the dangers of UXO is a critical part of the school curriculum.

    I don't know the personal circumstances of the girl in the image or whether she has been personally affected by the aftermath of the war. Whether she has or not, she will have to live her life with the constant threat of UXO so I'm comfortable applying this context to the image.

    I reposted the image because it generated zero comments when I first posted it under the heading 'Untitled'.
    Syncopation

    The virtue of the camera is not the power it has to transform the photographer into an artist, but the impulse it gives him to keep on looking. - Brook Atkinson- 1951
  • toragstorags Registered Users Posts: 4,615 Major grins
    edited August 3, 2012
    Fair enough historical representation. Just to add, there were no winners in the Viet Nam war (I was against it personally)

    Regarding the titles "untitled", again personally, I pass. I'm glad I caught it the second time around

    Good work
    Rags
  • PattiPatti Registered Users Posts: 1,576 Major grins
    edited August 3, 2012
    I think it's a terrific shot. Sometimes I think we sometimes get so caught up in splitting hairs over context, rules and political correctness that we miss out on enjoying an interesting, well executed capture as it is, a moment in time. It's a pity.
    The use of a camera is similar to that of a knife. You can use it to peel potatoes, or carve a flute. ~ E. Kahlmeyer
    ... I'm still peeling potatoes.

    patti hinton photography
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