Re: [Leica] McCurry's Afghan Girl [OT]

[Gary Elshaw <godard@hotmail.com>]

> Gary Elshaw wrote:
>>>> Oh, it's definitely her, I laughed out loud at the scans they did of her
>> eyes, I wouldn't have thought there needed to be scientific veracity on
>> that, but there you go.<<<
Ted wrote: 
> Hi Gary,
> Now that's a frightening experience to say the least! We've just finished
> flat bed scanning prints of me at 21 as an officer cadet in the Canadian
> army COTC. One, me standing beside a Staghound armoured car and it's like,
> "Who the hell is that skinny kid in fatigues?"
> 
> Then look in the mirror, scares the hell out of you!  :-( Trust me don't do
> it first thing in the morning, could ruin your whole day creating a shaking
> hand that even your Leica at 1/1000 couldn't stop. ;-)

No kidding! I'm still a skinny kid that sometimes wears fatigues, but that
schnozz just keeps getting bigger, the jaw line is harder and the face is a
little longer too. One look in the mirror suggests there won't be any
hand-held portraits today :-)

> Now is she going to be turned into some kind of celebrity and spoiled by the
> western world attention and when they've tired of her, dump her back on the
> countryside?

I'm not sure she even knows about the celebrity surrounding her image. If
they were offering to fly her to the states for a tour, putting her in Grand
hotels, 5 star cuisine etc, it might be different. Remember all those turn
of the century anthropologists who liked to kidnap subjects to bring back to
the west so they could tour? From what I've read, any attention she has had
from Nat. G. is now over, aside from assurances of economic support in the
future. I wonder how long they spent with her on this last visit?

All the best, Ted.

Gary
_____________________________________________________________
"The difficulty now is that unexceptional adults believe the loss of
youthful dreaming is itself "growing up," as though adulthood were the
passive conclusion to a doomed activity and hope during adolescence."

                                            The Uses of Disorder
                                      Personal Identity and City Life
                                            -- Richard Sennett

OO  
[_]<| 
 /|\
Gary Elshaw 
Film  and Media Studies Tutor
Victoria University
New Zealand
http://elshaw.tripod.com/
_____________________________________________________________

- --
To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html