the picturesque

 Another posting on the picturesque. Or, photography.

The photos above are again, taken by me, on my trip to India (2008). I was in Udaipur, and if I remember correctly, these photos were taken near a ghatt right by the place we were staying, the "Gangaur Palace". I am assuming that the ghatt's name was Gangaur. I might be wrong. Not that this is important.

On my last posting on photography, a friend of mine commented that perhaps photographers are criticized more often than artists working with other mediums than film, because we tend to think that it is "easier" to take a photograph than, say, paint a picture. I totally agree, and I think that the proliferation of digital cameras have made it even worse. Everyone has a digital camera. Of course they take it when on a trip. And of course, they will easily capture a scene and say, "ta-da, here is a picture from my trip to India. Isn't India grand?" and the cynics and the critics will say, Oh, what our world has come to! They think they are all artists! Ah. I think I digressed.

I took that picture, because I thought the man was beautiful. I love his colorful turban, as well as the simpleness of his instrument. And that dangling decoration attached to his instrument tickles the eyes. No? It tickled mine anyway.

Like I said-- because it was beautiful. Like I just said-- I thought, and still think, the man is beautiful. And yes, like the friend mentioned above said, I tend to approach things from an aesthetic perspective when taking pictures. I don't necessarily mean to objectify things or otherize things-- but that is the destiny of a person with a camera, I think.

And yesterday, I was reading David Spurr's The Rhetoric of Empire, specifically a chapter entitled "Aestheticization" -- what a coincidence. He notes:

"When the picturesque and the melodramatic are given prominence, they displace the historical dimension, isolating the story as story from the relations of political and economic power that provide a more meaningful context for understanding poverty." (48)

"The camera, he (Walter Benjamin" said, 'is now incapable of photographing a tenement or a rubbish heap without transforming it. Not to mention a river dam or an electric cable factory: in front of these, photographs can only say, "how beautiful..." ... It has succeeded in turning abject poverty itself, by handling it in a modish, technically perfect way, into an object of enjoyment." (52)

So, like I said, my beautifying of the object/ the man is not entirely innocent. It's okay, I'm not crying my eyes out and punching myself on the chest, saying "Oh I am a colonialist" or "Oh, am I using that same rhetoric, even when I am just loving the scene!?" or anything like that. Just to say, that I am aware of the dynamics between the traveler (with a camera/ a pen/ a brush) and the locals. To say, that aestheticization can be another form with which we alienate.

Another series taken on the same ghatt, on the same day. I think these were his children--they were playing quite near him, and they were often cuddled by the lady who was with him. So, an entire family out there. The father playing his music, the children playing with water bottles. I guess I can comfort myself and say, although I did kind of transform this man into an aesthecized picturesque, I was still able to discern from the surroundings, that he is a man in reality, a man working to support his family. I did not think him a "noble savage" but a father in charge of feeding his kids. And I knew that there were lots of such people doing the same. This is a job like any other, for him. Although not on an official stage, here he was, transforming the ghatt into a threatre, so that he may be able to earn enough  money to buy the necessities of life for his family.


And the music came to a stop. We went our way, and he wrapped up his instrument. I wonder where his next performance was. And here I am, 5 years later, miles away from Udaipur, thinking of this man.

Sometimes, locals will play the role of the fantastic, exotic, for you. They know what fascinates the tourists. They know. It's a loop that everyone feeds back into. The loop is called, I guess, the tourist industry. Hmmm.

I'll stop rambling about such things soon, but be patient with me:) Going over pictures from India makes me think of these issues.

2013. 2. 5