[Leica] IMG: Home, II

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (Ted Grant)]

Tina,

Excellent comments and appreciation of people and the world..

Good on you girl, well said!

ted

 

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+tedgrant=shaw.ca@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+tedgrant=shaw.ca@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Tina
Manley
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2008 6:40 AM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] IMG: Home, II

 

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 

 

 

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