[Leica] Political correctness, foreign photography does have some valid p oints

["Birkey, Duane" <dbirkey@hcjb.org.ec>]

Being a U.S.A. born and raised photographer now living in a third world
country..... I would like to point out that there are some vaild concerns
about photography done by foreigners....  

Number one, there are a lot of people that spend one week or two visiting a
given country and they can produce a lot of pictures which may present
issues and people in a less than truthful way.  I've seen photographs by
well known photographers in several top magazines and books of people I
recognize..... why.... because they are professional subjects.... they spend
their days hanging around tourist spots dressed up "typical" costumes
charging people to take their pictures.....  I've seen numerous pictures
where the photographer got the caption wrong and someone who knows what they
are photographing will not make mistakes like that.  In Ecuador we have many
different ethnic groups and it is especially easy for foreigners and even
the locals to mis-identify things...  Our local newspaper runs a column of
places to visit and generally run a photo that looks similar, but is
wrong......  a waterfall is a waterfall is a waterfall..  I know of one
museaum that has a Shuar blowgun in the Waoroni collection..

Sort of reminds me of the movie Jurasic Park.... I was living in Costa Rica
at the time and went to the premier showing....  There was a scene in the
movie that had the subtitle "San Jose, Costa Rica ".  it was the beach front
meeting next to some thatch roofed bars or kiosks where what's his name
"Neuman of Seinfeld" got the can to smuggle out some embryos?.... anyhow,
anyone who has been to Costa Rica knows that San Jose is a modern city (for
the most part) in the mountains in the middle of the country.... several
hours from the coast and looks nothing like a 3rd world beach front resort.
Needless to say the screams and whistles went on for 4 or 5 minutes and
caused quite a ruckus...   

At the same time.... Foreigners can pick up on things that are culturally
unique that nationals are so used to that they no longer find them
interesting.  But Foreigners can miss the cutural point as well and come
back with images that just don't do justice to the subject and can indeed be
insulting. 

To say that Tina's work does this would I think qualify as heresy....  But I
know it can and does happen and I can understand and even applaud some
concern that the images presented are indeed what they say they are.   But
let's be reasonable... good work is good work is good work....  no matter
who shoots it. 

Duane Birkey
HCJB World Radio
Quito Ecuador
Duane's Photographs of Ecuador
http://duane_birkey.tripod.com