confident gaze Meagan Cronin

In an essay by Shekhar Deshpande “The Confident Gaze”, she describes a photograph that was taken by a National Geographic photographer of an Indian boy all covered in red dust, with these huge dark brown eyes staring back at you that almost tell you a story and are full of emotion. He then also begins to go on describing how the magazine National Geographic is a magazine that uses pictures to draw in the reader. It is almost like the magazine does it on purpose, to make it so that people can look at the amazing pictures and still be able to somewhat understand what is going on in the article. Deshpande states “Its impact is felt most in the photographic realm. That says a lot. It could appeal to the semi-literate as well as to the literate by providing an entry into a field that needs to be taken with caution and respect for the “other” world”. (3) What Deshpande is meaning to get across with this quote is how if people are not that good of readers, being able to look at the pictures will still help them understand the story. I know that when I am looking at a National Geographic magazine I usually tend to just look at the pictures. Deshpande believes that National Geographic almost sugar coats the articles that they put out with pictures, like even though there might be a war going on for example photographers will take pictures of women and their children smiling. Deshpande states “While we admire the accomplishments of its photographers to bring us the rest of the world, we forget that the photographers and the contexts in which they are placed represent a very conscious effort by the editors to make the world a happy place and a happy place especially for the Western eye”. (3) Basically what Deshpande is saying is how, many of the photographs are taken in a somewhat positive setting. “and it attempts to sanitize and universalize the uncomfortable as well as different elements of other cultures”. (3) As the essay goes on Deshpande describes how in the magazine article it talks about the life in India “without any references to the real troubles of the people or the global conditions in which the country is implicated in”. (4)