Maasai and "Photo Raiders"

[roger krueger]

An interesting blog post on

<a href="http://www.omniverse.blogspot.com">

www.omniverse.blogspot.com</a> (Scroll down, it's the Sept. 10 post, not the current

one) about how the Maasai view some western photographers. Although part of me wants

to sympathize, another part of me is screaming that if Winogrand had extended the

asked-for courtesies to indigenous New Yorkers we'd be much the poorer.

<br><br>

Maybe it's the repetition: an average American is very unlikely to be--or even know--the

"victim" of a street photographer more than once, excepting perhaps people who

consciously make a spectacle of themselves. For the Maasai it's apparently a constant

irritant. like facing papparazzi without the Malibu mansion as compensation.

[scott_strohmeier]

Of course, there is another interpretation of this. The Maasai culture , while being the target of photographers, are not inundated in images like our culture does to us. Therefore they would of course view images of themselves in a different light than a comparable american individual. As an example, recently there was hired a new young lady at my favorite coffee shop. I had in the past, say 3 or more years before this, taken a street shot of her sitting and smoking. When cleaning up old files I chanced upon a framed copy of this print, and presented it to Mary. She was delighted, and even speculated as to where she was working at the tiem, to end up in the neighborhood.

So she wasn't in the least offended, nor did she feel like she was stalked or hunted.

In Maasai land, the same action would undoubtedly be viewed in a different light, due to the scarsity of any images there. I seem to remember that in the past, primitive people thought thier souls were being stolen by photographers. They were not acquainted with photography, so it was magic. It is just a short jump from magic to bad magic.

As for being a constant irritant, I have a close friend who, while touring Africa, spent 2 days in a village shooting images. He was not happy that he had to pay the people who he was shooting for that right. But he did pay the same people he was shooting, as I recall. One instance when he thought he wanted more shots and the woman wanted more money comes to mind.He had shot enough for her tastes and she was done, unless he paid more.

I think when viewing blogs, it is good to keep in mind that there is no real way to insure that the blog is wholly true. I would be interested in finding out just what the thoughts of most Maasai are, rather than just one blog or website.

[thomas_sullivan]

One way to judge the validity of the Maasai post, is to read the rest of the entries on this woman's blog. You'll get a real good idea of a middle aged married woman with not much to do except voice her opinion (with almost no facts to back it up) on her blog.<br><br>here is the link she refers to<br><br><a href="http://www.maasai-infoline.org/"><u>Photo Raiders</u></a><br><br>sound familiar? Its the same sort of "opinion" that goes on in the United States. You can thank our founding father's for clearing the issue up here in the States with the Constitutional 1st Ammendment. We get the same pile of contradictory comments being made in the same breath as what is on that site.........but at least here, we have the constitution backing up the rights of the photographer as well as the person being photographed.

[Uhooru]

How do we know what the "correct" spelling is, did the name arise from a written language and was that language English?) Besides, I thought exploitation is a neccessary part of capatilism; dosen't our blogger believe in freedom? Besides, indigineous New Yorkers are a really strange yet somewhat interesting tribe.

 

Papp Arrizi

 

p.s. I think Thomas said it pretty well.

[bill_thorlin]

There has always been some degree of antagonism from the indigenous people of Kenya to having their photo taken since the camera first appeared there. The received "wisdom" was that they felt that something was being taken from them. I cannot vouch for this as I was not around at that time.

 

The advent of virtually mass tourism made the situation worse in that some of the tourists took/take a superior attitude, some poked fun and some had very weird agendas. In addition it became common place to pay for taking their pictures as a few shillings was nothing to the tourist but a lot to the recipient.

 

The Masai/Maasai people are very proud of their traditions and culture which they see as being eroded in the modern world. They are also a fiercly independent people with a tradition of returning to their roots. I personally experienced this when trying a new route out of Amboseli and stopped in the middle of nowhere to ask if I was on the right road. My faltering swahili was met with a reply in faultless english - it transpired that he had been to university in the UK but had decided to return to what he considered to be a better way of life - until then I had thought these stories (of which I had heard many) were apocryphal.

 

Every community has a vociferous section and maybe this is an example of that.I do not know if the organisation is mainstream or a little extremist but I do have some sympathy with the more (to my mind) reasonable points.

 

As to whether it is Masai or Maasai I know not but I do know that the pronunciation also varies from a short to a long "a". There are many words used in Kenya that are spelt and pronounced in different ways so one could be as good as the other - after all the game park is the "Masai" Mara on maps, road signs and other official publications produced in Kenya.

 

I hope this background/context helps to put things in perspective.

[mike dixon]

The first part of the blog entry from the previous day:<P>

<i>"The Ring" was one of the scariest movies ever made; "The Ring Two" should never have BEEN made. I watched the latter tonight, and it got me thinking about one of our many odd tendencies as a species; to see the 2-dimensional images in mirrors, photos, paintings, movie and TV screens as windows into other kinds of realities, or doorways through which who knows what might be seen, or emerge, or through which we might be able to pass, voluntarily or by the will of some nameless force, and perhaps later return... or not.</i><P>

I assumed my fear of being sucked through the mirror into another dimension was a result of taking four hits of acid and reading Stephen King--now I realize it's just part of being human.

[davidv1]

Ya'll sure she's not Jean Teasdale?

 

http://www.theonion.com/content/opinions

[35mmdelux]

Well, just like celebrities, if you want the money it goes with the territory. Sorry. Just the way life is. They're lucky they aren't Ruwandans where nobody in their right mind wants to go.

[bill_thorlin]

Unless you want to see the gorillas.