A friend of mine recently spent some time in Ghana, and she's got the pictures to prove it. Among the photos are lots (and lots and lots and lots) of photos of young children - she was in Ghana to teach, after all.
Anyway, I've only seen a few of the photos, but I noticed that I find the ones of children very emotionally intense. I also realized that I tend to find almost all close-up shots of African kids intense - there's something about the eyes, I want to tell myself.
However, now I'm not sure if all the photos I've ever seen are really so intense, or if there's some part of my brain that's tapping into late--night commercials where an old white dude is adorned with small African children. You know, the ones where he asks for money to feed them. I guess I'm wondering if I'm reading a whole lot of cultural background into what I see in the picture itself: all that stuff I've read about starving African children, unsanitary conditions, etc. Is it influencing what I see? Am I layering a lot of contextual material onto the photos I see?
You know, I don't think the two are exclusive, either - the more I look at the above photo, the more I'm convinced the subject's eyes are somewhat haunting, but that I'm probably still reading way too much into it.
What do y'all think?
Monday, July 2, 2007
The Eyes
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3 comments:
I think kid's eyes (in photographs) tend to be over-deep and haunting, or engaging, fall-in-able to varying degrees most of the time, regardless of where they're from.
There is something about children's brains that is unfathomable. That might be why.
The thing that gets me is that I don't always find that white children's eyes have the same effect on me. I think that's why I brought this up.
It could be the situations where you commonly see white kids' eyes (I'm assuming you're meaning in photographs). Family photos, snapshots, ads. When you see the eyes of white kids from comparable economic situations, or emotional situations (tiredness, unfamiliarity with the photographer, whatever), do they look as haunting? I don't know how much American photography you consume, but try out Lewis Hine (here and here)
Chase also mentioned reading something by Martin Parr about the family photo as the ultimate form of propaganda.
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