Deshpande Summary and Quotes

Shekhar Desphande in his article “The Confident Gaze” describes how the National Geographic magazine throughout the years has used mostly images to obtain the attention of the people who buy the magazines or the people in the western culture. The pictures on the covers of the National Geographic magazines are what get the attention of the buyers, even if they don’t always represent accurately what is really happening when the picture is taken. The article starts out by describing the issue “Little India” that was released in July 1997 because India had turned 50 years old as an independent country. The cover image of that issue is of a boy with red paint all over his face which would mean that he was celebrating something at a festival and probably having a good time. In reality the picture represents something else. What is seen on the picture is a very thin tired looking boy. He also looks sad and has wrinkles on his face. If this picture was of a normal looking boy in a normal place then the image would have nothing special about it. Like Deshpande describes that “Human suffering is worth a good image”. Deshpande is saying that once people in the western culture see something unusual or someone who going through pain on an image; then it is worth checking it out because it is not something we see every day.
Deshpande goes on describing how the National Geographic magazine mostly gets its information across through pictures. Deshpande says that “National Geographic is known as a photographic magazine”. So in other words Deshpande is saying that to the people who make the National Geographic magazines really care about what images are included in their magazines and what they represent. If the images aren’t good, then no one will be interested in buying the magazine. In order to sell more magazines the photographers stretch the truth on what the images really represent.