Oops what year is it

Oops what year is it?
The Confident Gaze
by Shekhar Deshpanda
The National Geographic misty lens
Shekhar Deshpanda article the confident gaze is a call for vision, for its reader to wake up and see the photographic message depicted in The National Graphic magazine. Deshpanda is educating his readers on the deception or as in his words “While we admire the accomplishments of its photographers to bring us the rest of the world, we forget that the photographs 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”(Deshpanda par 9). Deshpanda is leading his reader to discover the hidden message the glossing over of the truth, the real vision not the made up view. Despanda brings this out clearly stating “The pictures of the monsoon or the image of a woman cooking food on the pavements of Calcutta are devoid of their documentary contexts. They are great in providing excruciating detail of misery, the unpreparedness of a youngster in the rain or the paucity of food and water on the pavement. From the worn out bricks to the tobacco stains on the teeth, the photographs are rich in their content, but entirely dishonest in their relationship to the environment or the context. It is as if that world needs to be in appropriate way to Western observer, could he not see it in its bare essentialities” (Deshpanda par.13). Deshpanda views could hold water and probably does with people of the 1950s and early 1960s but in today’s world we are for more educated and understand that it is a money drive world and you must appeal to your audience. The National Geographic magazine doesn’t just materialize it all take money and the western eye is where it is. By the way back to Despanda article he talks about a photograph of the van and the white man and the three women and how this supports his argument. Reread it, this picture is from 1947 think about it. In 1947 photographic technology was adventurous it just wasn’t aim and shoot you didn’t just pull your camera out of your pocket. Taking a picture was a process and the one lady describe as if to be mesmerized by the camera, no doubt, India in 1947 I can safely say this was the first time she saw a camera and the two other woman where most likely afraid of it. Read what you want into photographs just don’t let people tell you what you should see.
Bobby Alstatt (Nihilist)