Family Portrait in Wakhi House, Boroghil, Pakistan

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AMAZING! Totally awesome, you can put most National Geographic photographers to shame.

The harsh light is a great metaphor for a harsh life.

a remarkable documentary photograph. Karl, you show us that the choice of one significant image can shed light on the bigger picture of an entire society. it's so curious how your light effect makes them seem posed like any studio family portrait, yet the miss en scene as you've captured it provides more significance than the usual family portrait and commercial family pose in western culture, and rather enlightens us about the harsh realities of this family's life story in their culture. the looming figure of the father protecting a large group of young children is very poignant. you've made a great choice of foregrounding him. and the moment you chose to snap the children is a significant rendering of how the older children find your actions with the camera extremely curious. adding to your representation is how we are made to be unsure of who the mother is, or if she's alive at all. outstanding realism, outstanding historical document, outstanding drama and humanism, outstanding light/shadow aesthetic. bravo. dp

a remarkable documentary photograph. Karl, you show us that the choice of one significant image can shed light on the bigger picture of an entire society. it's so curious how your light effect makes them seem posed like any studio family portrait, yet the miss en scene as you've captured it provides more significance than the usual family portrait and commercial family pose in western culture, and rather enlightens us about the harsh realities of this family's life story in their culture. the looming figure of the father protecting a large group of young children is very poignant. you've made a great choice of foregrounding him. and the moment you chose to snap the children is a significant rendering of how the older children find your actions with the camera extremely curious. adding to your representation is how we are made to be unsure of who the mother is, or if she's alive at all. outstanding realism, outstanding historical document, outstanding drama and humanism, outstanding light/shadow aesthetic. bravo. dp

A' terrific exempt of documentary and photojournalism, my two favourite forms of photography, no pixel peeping here. A realistic image of life in Pakistan. And here we are myself included worried about what  lens, or camera body I' should  by next, when more than half the world have real needs, like where will their next meal come from, Something that is so far removed from a lot of the Western world, it reinstates how Important photography is to us all, enough rambling, what a great documentary photo.

i can only agree with what Donna has said, a remarkable shot which leaves me feeling very small

This has a similar objectifying quality to THIS POTW from a few weeks ago and THIS from just before it. It feels a little bit like we're in the car in one of those Florida animal safaris where you're looking from behind glass at the subjects and scenery.

Everything is in its place. The lighting is impressive but unexpressive as are the stilted poses. Do we find humanity here or simply an attempt at making a picture that will get overcharged ratings by the masses on PN? It's EXACTLY what a known good picture should look like. Except it has little personality, little of an individual or personal stamp, little to draw me in other than a technique which says "I've got this photo thing down."

The presentation almost made me feel, when I first opened the photo, as if I were looking at stone figures. I think there are times when a sculptural approach to various subjects can work incredibly well. But not when that seems to zap the life from the subjects. The angle, the lighting are both extremely safe and extremely known. This is a very accessible photo and thus, IMO, its popularity. There is no mood, no atmosphere, no question unanswered, and suggesting of a significant moment, no dynamics. It's passive. The photographer can sit back and collect his 6s and 7s and the audience can easily push those high-rating buttons, because they know this looks like a good picture is supposed to look. There's not a hint of either spontaneity or spark, little actual engagement, little involvement. Here, presented for your unquestioning acceptance . . .

A very powerful PJ shot which needs no words to convey the harshness & reality here

The head of family  has children instead of social security, bank account, retirement plan and so on. This is simple and fair. The strength emanates from this photo. I do not understand why he has one slipper and a robust mountain shoe. May be he is injured.

Fred, my friend..
i can understand why you would want more dynamic and dramatic illustrations of this family and their life. but surely the presentation that Karl gives us is neither flat, pretentious, opportunistic, or without great import. it documents quite provocatively and effectively a societal situation that must not be ignored. i do agree however, that i'd luv to see a more dramatic spread of images of this family to enlighten us and do justice to the family and the society. dp

There's no doubt this shows the harshness and reality of their environment, but I feel like I'm seeing it in the context of one of those diorama presententations in a museum.

It's said that "the devil is in the details", and there's one detail in this photo that really catches my attention...look at the father and son on the left. They are wearing a different type of shoe or boot on each of their feet.

I like the photograph well enough, and it looks as if the photographer had plenty of time to set it up. So if he had that time, I'd have prefered he managed the light and shadows a bit better. The photo makes me work too hard to see depth and detail.

I agree Donna, and didn't and wouldn't use those words to describe it. I'm not sure why you mention these words in the context of addressing me.

It seems like a lot of responders here are appreciating this photo because it makes them feel guilty. Sentiments like we have our lenses and they have nothing. It's a response based on a kind of pathos presented which I find off-putting rather than humanizing or engaging.

I think Jim's use of the word "diorama" in descriptive and insightful. This family is being displayed and many of the viewers are feeling sympathy rather than empathy. To me, that's a problem of human proportion.

HI.. i have to agree with Fred. at first glance they remind me of something from The Flintstones. they resemble clay. everything is one scale of grey. they lack emotion to me of any kind. the lack of emotion in this photo evokes really nothing in me. i dont feel for this family and perhaps i am supposed to but it does remind me very much of a sears portrait. everything seems staged and manipulated. it lacks in detail and expression. even with sears portraits which i hate if you look at the families facial expressions even if the smiles are generic and put on you can tell exactly what they are thinking and feeling... with this photo however no message no story is being conveyed. the strangest thing to me though is that most people dont even see that? i wonder if its because people just look at photos from a more scientific point of view, much like a mathematical equation?

Fred, my friend, you wrote...
"Do we find humanity here or simply an attempt at making a picture that will get overcharged ratings by the masses on PN?"
This statement of yours implies exactly a presumption of "pretension" and "opportunism" in Karl's intent. To the contrary, every comment here expresses gratitude for the enlightening realism, and the technical effectiveness of the image; only a few folks out of very many here expressed feelings akin to guilt for this family's plight.
Nothing is unduly manipulated in this picture. and neither is it a candid. it's an effective rendition of the father's approval to have his family and home engaged by a western photographer. The alternative might be that this picture was never shared with us; and that certainly should generate pathos about our own ignorance. dp

Donna, I didn't suggest anything was unduly manipulated. This forum seems to concentrate way too much on manipulation. A photo can be effective or ineffective whether it's manipulated or not. It could have much more to do with lighting conditions, pose, the angle used to shoot, the DOF, the perspective of the photographer, and the content and may have nothing to do with manipulation or not.

You are right to point this out as a mistaken attribution on my part of intent to the photographer:

I should have left out "an attempt at making" so the statement would read "Do we find humanity here or simply a picture that will get overcharged ratings by the masses on PN?" I really don't have any way of knowing whether the photographer was somehow attempting to get good ratings and shouldn't presume he was doing that. But the result of such a photo is that it gets good ratings and that's how the photo looked to me, regardless of the photographer's motivations for making the picture this way. Yours is a good reminder, because I do prefer to critique the photos presented here rather than guess at or project the photographer's intentions. The photo, to me, looks representative of a very known and acceptable version of a good photo.

Thanks, Donna.

hi carla...
maybe this is an unfair request, but knowing your talent and insights as i do, i'd love to know what sort of picture you would have gone for.. had you been invited into this family's home to take a picture. as i've pointed out, it's not a candid, or a private image. it is what it is, and i'm glad it was taken with decent skill and intent, and presented to us. d

The photo does actually evoke something in me,, the fact that this man would bring 9 children that we know of under these conditions into the world isnt based on ignorance its based on self centeredness , selfishness, and plain stupidity.. so dont ask me to feel sympathy or empathy for this kind. he created his conditions and if they really were so intolerable than he would have consider abstinence.This has little to do with culture? We have plenty of our own stupidity going on right here in our Western civilization.what is taking a photo of this really going to change ? what made us so egotistical to think that we can help others when we cant even take care of ourselves?

hi DONNA,,, what photo would i have taken? i wouldnt have been interested in taking such a photo. like i said he is a stupid man who has little value for life . his life must have been worse than that of his children of course i am only assuming here? i see absolutely no value in taking this mans photo whatsoever. perhaps i would come back in 5yrs just to take a photo of his new extended family.. that may be interesting.

carla, you think:
"the fact that this man would bring 9 children that we know of under these conditions into the world isnt based on ignorance its based on self centeredness , selfishness, and plain stupidity"...
a totally enlightening observation. further proof of how provocative the picture is. and comparing it to western culture, i totally appreciate the irony in that it is a picture taken in what we might refer to as a typical family portrait in western style.
i agree with you about the problem with bringing children into dangerous conditions; it's a very important decision for families to make... but then again, that the family is so big in spite of the conditions tells us a lot about the culture as well. d

I read some of the comments here but not all but with what I did read, I couldn't help but boil this down to something like: "Uncle Bob comes over for dinner and to see the kids and then wants to make a group shot to memorialize it." The lighting is pretty simple and could be a bare bulb overhead or just a flash--maybe even with one of those "fong" things on it.

If it weren't for the exotic--to us--nature of the shot, I am not sure we would think much more about it. That doesn't mean we don't see the context of their life here but I looked around the rest of the images in this stream and didn't get a sense of a story of a hard life being told but maybe just one that shows what life is like. We coin it as hard or harsh whereas I bet they just see it as normal--no big deal. They may feel they have a bountiful life. If they aren't suffering from war or famine or something similar, they might just be happier and more content than we are sitting around with our pound cake pounding away on this keyboard (I hate pound cake...) and feeling we have to respond to every text someone decides to send us or make every yo-yo our friend on Facebook. They are probably more "connected" than we are or could hope to be.

I found this shot interesting because I guess I hadn't seen this "kitchen" set up before and it intrigues me. I would love to join Uncle Bob next time he goes over for a meal...

Fred - you said so much of what I feel about this POW only much more eloquently.

If this is a family portrait, why is no one smiling? Do they really want to be memorialized looking like this? Further, why would a family like this want a portrait anyway? To share on their iPhones?

If this is documentary then, as others have suggested, more photo journalism and less staging techniques should have been used.

The one thing I do like about this photo are the pocket books hanging on both sides, a sort of modern Western world frame on a stagnated Eastern culture.

Maybe it is because the photographer thought this one was better than the ones with the smiling faces--this is one moment that the photographer chose to show us--or maybe it is a cultural thing. But it is also made for the photographer and maybe they just obliged--and by the way, why wouldn't a family "like this" want a portrait?

Just as a note, I didn't really find anyone smiling in any of the photos like this in Karl's stream or on the wider net of these tribal people. Oddly, though, and a heads up to Karl if it wasn't authorized, one of his photos from this set appears on this website.

Solid composition, but I feel the B/W treatment is a bit extreme especially the complete blackening of the background compared to this similar image:
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=5183392&size=lg