TrekEarth
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| Are we ashamed of ourselves? | joseelias | :: | 2005-02-07 8:18 |
| I was going to reply to Sohrabs very interesting thread “TREKEARTH VS THE WORLD” regarding the bigger popularity of landscape photos vs. people photos, but some cultural issues came to my mind (again, as this issue was in my idea for sometime). In fact some were raised in that thread already. My question is: why aren’t more people and daily life photos from Europe and North-America presented in TE? Is it really the scare of being sued, or the violation of the privacy issue that limits us “westerns” to take more photos of people, or is it because our personal esteem is so low that we consider ourselves and our lives so uninteresting and not worthy to be photographed? I truly believe the latest hypothesis is the most important one and use the previous ones as an excuse not to photograph ourselves. For example, we all admire photos of Buddhist monks, Hindu ceremonies, etc. Why don’t we try to portrait the same themes in Europe or America? In the Catholic countries for example it’s relatively easy to find nuns, priests, look at processions with kids dressed as religious figures and religious events. We also have political demonstrations regularly. Why aren’t these portrayed? We all admire images of Asians ridding buffalos in their daily life. Why can’t we capture people here running for a cab, jumping on and off buses, or moving like an impersonal mass out from a ferry? Many western countries still have small groceries and open air markets. Why aren’t these noticed? And more, why are they the efforts of the few members that try to break this status so lowly “rewarded”? I know that looking at the unknown and the “exotic” may be more appealing. But aren’t we exotic to the other parts of the world also? Or do we have such a western-centric vision of the world that assume that our way of life don’t present anything much interesting to the others, and especially ourselves? Do we assume that the others know “us” so well that it doesn’t worth to portrait us? Finally, and the most controversial issue, isn’t this search for the “exotic” we’re living a bit of diminishing to the others? Like looking at rare animals? (I’m talking about the western vision of “others” and not that they are rare animals. Please don’t interpret this in wrong terms). Aren’t we all “exotic”? Despite the interests of each other, isn’t the objective of TE to “Learn the World through Photography”? So why don’t we Europeans and North Americans try to show a bit more of ourselves? Sorry for the lowly articulated ideas, but I’m also trying to figure out these ideas in my head also. Maybe you could help me and who knows show a bit more from us to the other parts of the world. |
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| Thread | Username | Date | |
| Are we ashamed of ourselves? | joseelias
![Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2665 W: 633 N: 99]](http://i1.trekearth.com/misc/g-g-g.gif){kind=small} (367) | :: | 2005-02-07 08:18 |
| :Re: Are we ashamed of ourselves? | Luko
(13894) | :: | 2005-02-07 09:31 |
| ::Re: Are we ashamed of ourselves? | joseelias
(367) | :: | 2005-02-07 10:39 |
| :::Re: Are we ashamed of ourselves? | joseelias
(367) | :: | 2005-02-07 11:00 |
| ::::Re: Are we ashamed of ourselves? | tongapup
![Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 310 W: 29 N: 176]](http://i1.trekearth.com/misc/g-s-g.gif){kind=small} (1574) | :: | 2005-02-07 22:30 |
| :::::Re: Are we ashamed of ourselves? | joseelias
(367) | :: | 2005-02-08 05:49 |
| ::::Re: Are we ashamed of ourselves? | Furachan
![Gold Star Critiquer [C: 3035 W: 0 N: 0]](http://i1.trekearth.com/misc/g-n-n.gif){kind=small} (0) | :: | 2005-06-17 11:05 |
| ::Re: Are we ashamed of ourselves? | markgong
(2840) | :: | 2005-04-07 22:24 |
| :Re: Are we ashamed of ourselves? | cgrindahl
(6109) | :: | 2005-02-18 21:30 |
| :Re: Are we ashamed of ourselves? | Rinie_Hoff
(9332) | :: | 2005-02-21 19:22 |
| ::Re: Are we ashamed of ourselves? | RandomCameraGuy
(3063) | :: | 2005-02-22 04:32 |
| :::Re: Are we ashamed of ourselves? | joseelias
(367) | :: | 2005-02-23 07:45 |
| ::Re: Are we ashamed of ourselves? | joseelias
(367) | :: | 2005-02-23 07:44 |
| :Progress Report | cgrindahl
(6109) | :: | 2005-02-22 12:37 |
| ::Re: Progress Report | kikvel
(4772) | :: | 2005-02-22 13:40 |
| :::Re: Progress Report | joseelias
(367) | :: | 2005-02-23 07:46 |
| ::Re: Progress Report | joseelias
(367) | :: | 2005-02-23 07:45 |
| :Re: Are we ashamed of ourselves? | cessy
(13647) | :: | 2005-02-28 08:18 |
| ::Re: Are we ashamed of ourselves? | CliffW
(2310) | :: | 2005-03-12 16:44 |
| :Re: Are we ashamed of ourselves? | Nols
![Silver Star Critiquer [C: 19 W: 0 N: 7]](http://i1.trekearth.com/misc/s-n-n.gif){kind=small} (69) | :: | 2005-04-07 18:57 |
| :That's what TrekLens is for | markgong
(2840) | :: | 2005-04-07 22:53 |
| ::Re: That's what TrekLens is for | Homerhomer
(4005) | :: | 2005-04-08 08:34 |
| :::Re: That's what TrekLens is for | markgong
(2840) | :: | 2005-04-08 11:27 |
| ::::Re: People, form and photo | Santi
![Silver Star Critiquer/Silver Note Writer [C: 29 W: 0 N: 13]](http://i1.trekearth.com/misc/s-n-s.gif){kind=small} (163) | :: | 2005-06-25 17:56 |
| :::::Re: People, form and photo | kikvel
(4772) | :: | 2005-06-25 19:37 |
| :::::Re: People, form and photo | naxius
(16679) | :: | 2005-06-27 08:40 |
| :Re: Are we ashamed of ourselves? | jwmunro
(6575) | :: | 2005-06-26 09:59 |
| ::Re: Are we ashamed of ourselves? | Santi
(163) | :: | 2005-06-28 10:59 |
| :::Re: Are we ashamed of ourselves? | naxius
(16679) | :: | 2005-06-29 08:29 |
| :Re: Are we ashamed of ourselves? | kinginexile
(2440) | :: | 2005-08-28 20:13 |