Deshpande

In the article "The Confident Gaze" by Shekhar Deshpande he talks about the subject of National Geographic and how they sanitize their photographs so they capture the eye of the reader. Deshpande explains how the magazine is such an accomplished piece then goes on to the darker side of it. He explains a photo taken in India as Deshpande puts it, "the section shows the Western white man resting on the side panels of the vehicle while three young women from the hills of the North serve as his 'props'."(par 5) What Deshpande seems to be doing here is he is seeing the photograph as prejudice. His article then explains that there is an innocent attractiveness of the photography from National Geographic. In Deshpande's words, "It attempts to sanitize and universalize the incomfortable as well as different elements of other cultures."(par 8) What he means is that National Geographic makes the rest of the world look like good to the Westerner's eye. They can make the worst things like the wall between Palestine and Israel look good for the white man's enjoyment. In Desphande's view, "Human suffering becomes worth a good image. The hunger with which the photographer's eye looks at the world consumes those images that are transferable into a nascent and yet techincally perfect photographs."(par 10) Deshpande's article goes on to explain how these images gives power to the magazine. When they are photographing something terrible they just beautify it for our eyes so it is as Deshpande says "digestible"(par 12). This makes the photographs dishonest and the content is warped. Deshpande states, "This power to transform the most repulsive results of human actions around the world into images that are digestible is what makes for the culture of National Geographic."(par. 12)