The Confident Gaze

In the article by National Geographic’s titled, “The Confident Gaze” by Shekhar Deshpande. Deshpande talks about how a photograph may look amazing and beautiful, but there is also a deep and more than likely dark story behind what lead to that photograph. In the article it’s mainly referring to what India is like compared to what it used to be since it’s “turning 50”. There was a statement that came off to me as somewhat truthful when it comes to many magazine photographs. Shekhar states, “Human suffering becomes worth a good image”. (Par 10) What he means by this quote is the more the countries population is suffering the better it will look in pictures, and even if the situation of the photo may look beautiful, you have no idea what the back story could be behind that photograph. What I mean by this statement is, when you look at a country and see the people suffering it could be for many reasons, one could be from losing a loved one or from losing a home. Photographers will take advantage of these situations so that they can find an interesting photograph that will make their boss’s happy. I believe that some photographers only care about what will make them money and get them fame. There was another part of the article that really caught my eye. It was the quote by Deshpande that stated, “But while it covers or represents such issues or situations, it can sanitize and even beautify the blood and the gore of the conflict”. What I believe Deshpande is saying is, by capturing a photo no matter what is going on in it. Wither it be bloodshed or sadness a photo can turn into beauty no matter what it looks like the people are doing. What I mean by this is, a photographer has almost a direct ability to make a gruesome and horrible situation look radiant. Overall the article opened my eyes to what photographs can really turn out to be, and even if a photo may look appealing it could also have a totally different story behind it.