iMedia: Haiti
What I mean, is that the photographer was looking straight into this trapped man's eyes, a man who probably witnessed his friends, family, or neighbors die during this horrific incident, and the first thing he does... is take a picture. I cannot say exactly what I would do in this situation, but ever since I was born I have been told to help others in times of need. I can only hope that I would forget about the picture and rescue the man.
This picture is a clear reflection of the general mindset of modern America. That mindset is: me. This is obviously a very selfish mindset, but unfortunately it is true, as shown by this picture. My guess is that the photographer took this picture just to make another dollar, instead of stepping back, realizing his duty as one human to another, and immediately saving the desperate man.
posted by chrisj2010academy @ 5:43 PM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
Wow. That's incredible. I agree with you one hundred percent. I feel that we naturally look at this picture and see it as, the photographer is just doing his/her job. However, we've never really asked what exactly his/her duty is when(s)he's placed in a situation like this. It's so easy to forget who we are, and we tend to forget our duty to other humans. It's really sad, in my opinion, that we are brainwashed into this selfish nature because we haven't experienced this kind of pain and hardship. Or even in general, the mindset is definitely, "me first, and my welfare comes before your." Where exactly has our world come to? As humans we naturally have the instinct to save our own skin first, but what good will that do for us as a human race and as humanity?
Chris, as much as I'd like to agree with you, I must say that I somewhat disagree. I can see how you might look at this picture and think, "Did the photographer only take this picture to make some quick cash?" But I saw this photo and thought "Did he/she take this piture to raise awareness?" By that I mean: is this picture meant to show that terrible things happen to innocent people? Maybe this picture is being used to raise money for those people in Haiti who are in the situations like the one the man in the photo is in, instead of the purpose of te photo being: "I took a good photo, now I can make some money." Of course, there is no way for us to know, so the argument could go either way, but I appreciate your insight into this ongoing issue. And you are right; often times the human mindset is "it's all about me," but other times, it can be all about what is best for everyone else around me.
Chris A. said...I believe that you are taking a very broad mindset on this picture. It is very impressive that you are thinking about not only the terrifying notions of which the picture brings up but that you're also thinking about the picture taker. I think that this is an important thing to remember thinking about Sophie's world, or for that matter; any story. We must read deeply into the plot of the story and what is happening to the characters, but we must also think about Gaarder, the writer. Especially in a story like Sophie's world that has multiple levels of understanding, we must remember to include and think about The writer as another level. Great post!
Chris-
For a pretty short post, this could have probably been one of the most effective and thought-provoking thing I've read in a while. That picture is really...something. Just one look at it and you're flooded with all this emotion and questions. I mean, when I looked at that man, I saw all this desperation and confusion and longing in his face. It definitely, like you said, makes you think about the world and what's going on around us. We live in such a good, safe environment that sometimes we don't know the horrors that go on around us. This photo to some could really change someone's perspective of the situation [in Haiti] and could get people to try and make a difference. This picture and the post in general also made me think of the Letters to Haiti campaign we've been doing in French Club. We really wanted to reach out to the people in Haiti and get a primary source perspective of how things are going and how we can help them out. For about a week, we encouraged students to write letters in French [using translators if necessary] so we can send them to Haiti in hopes of getting letters back from Haitian students. We're also planning on doing a school supply drive to go along with it so we can help out the schools and the students. Additionally, we got some help from two GBS students who came from Haiti to escape from the situation. They had to leave their immediate family in Haiti and come here in hopes to get a good education and a better life. They live with some other family members here but keep in contact with their parents...it's a really moving story.
Lastly, I definitely agree with what you said about the photographer and about the mindset of most Americans. We seem to have trouble with looking beyond our problems and our needs to help others. It's a sad thing...
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