An insanely talented person, proficient in several forms of dances, Shikha Mishra gave me an excellent opportunity to do a photo essay on her dances. Below are some of the pictures that I thought was good from photographers point of view. The setup is using a single speedlight and a canon 30D with a tripod. I was lucky to find a nice background to add to the artistic expression of the dance.
This article is a response to the course “Mind, Identities and Self”, instructed by Dr. Steven Parish
I chose the medium of photographs to present a response for two reasons. First, I am interested in ethnographies using visual medium of expression. Second, I believe text when supplemented with images and vice versa, presents an interesting and a more holistic understanding of the concepts involved.
What is self? The question is of great importance and has been pervasive through space and time. The answer itself has been evolving and in all probability would be doing so for a long time to come. Jerrold Seigal, in “The Idea of Self” made an attempt to define the characteristic attributes of the self. Seigal breaks down the self into three dimensions: the bodily self, the social self, and the reflective self. In Siegal’s view any consistent theory of self should incorporate these three dimensions in its discussions. Anthropologist Alfred Irving Hallowell, in his book “Culture and Experience”, suggests that self-awareness is a socio-cultural product. Similar to the three dimensions of Siegal, culture provides basic orientations – self-orientation, object-orientation, spatio-temporal orientation, motivational-orientation and normative orientation – for the self which gives it its particular structure.
Plaisir Solitaire (The pleasure of Solitude), Rene Maltete
In this photo by Rene Maltete, titled “Plaisir Solitaire” one can experience the three dimensions suggested by Seigal – The man reflecting over his game of chess. Amusingly enough Maltete has been able to portray the reflections of the game, in the reflection of the mirror.
Throughout recorded history, a common theme for the discussion of ‘the self’ has been to distinguish between ‘the valued’ and the ‘the superfluous’. This pattern of distinction has manifested itself separating several other properties describing the self. Several philosophers have used this pattern to draw separation between what is essential and what is expendable. Plato gave importance to reason over emotion and, reality over appearance – reality and reason being more valued than appearance and emotion. Descartes suggested a dichotomy between the mind and the body – again the mind being valued more that the transient body.
Man without head. Rene Maltete.
In this photo, photographer Rene Maltete, has been humorously able to capture a person severing the body from the head. Although, the mind itself is considered ethereal in nature, reason and rationality are commonly associated with the head. Desire and emotions being more associated to the body.
An ‘authentic’ experience is a value that the self seeks to derive from its existence. In the book “Culture and Authenticity”, Charles Lindholm explores the importance of authenticity on the experience of who we are. To quote Seven Parish, “he guides us through a wide swath of contemporary life, showing us how much that appears wildly unrelated – country music, the mystique of the primitive in art, skydiving , the slow food movement, the tango as danced in Argentina – is united by the value of authenticity”. The search of authenticity and ultimately the search for self manifest itself in multitude of expressions. “Musicians aren’t the only ones driven to excess in order to prove their authenticity…, nor are collectors of primitive art…, Adventurous, spiritually motivated tourists also want to get off the beaten track and venture deep into dangerous territory…and gain a heightened sense of who they really are” (Chapter 3)
Grand Teton and the Snake River, Ansel Adams
This famous photo of the Grand Teton by Ansel Adams captures an expression of what authenticity seekers would want to experience – pristine, untouched, non commercial. A statement of what is really real.
The self’s relationship with culture has been explored by several anthropologists and philosophers. One handle on self by culture is through the relation of semiotics. Peirce, in his article, “What is a sign?” delineates a typology emphasizing different ways in which the sign refers to its objects. He defines three categories: Icon, Index and Symbol. Icon establishes a relation with its object by the quality of its own, Index establishes a real connection to its object and a Symbol develops a relationship by interpretation. Basso, in his book “Wisdom Sits in Places”, presents an excellent ethnography of the American Indians living in Cibecue, highlighting the importance of semiotics in the role of personhood. Cibecue Indians have developed a strong semiotic relationship with their surroundings, with their places names providing them with strong indexes and symbols on the way of life.
Guerrillero Heroico – Alberto Korda’s
Photographs have been a strong means of establishing a symbolic relationship with culture. This photo of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara by Alberto Korda has become a symbol of independence and defiance. Initially in the context of war and authority, this image is now used to represent an outside thinker, at whatever level, whether it is anti-war, pro-green or anti-globalisation.
Religion plays a significant role in defining the concepts of a person. The impact of religion is not limited through cultural means but goes beyond in defining the everyday lives of people. The impact of religion on the lived experience is brought about in the book, “Divinity and Experience” by Godfrey Lienhardt. He presents and analysis of religion of the Southern Sudan’s Dinka people and relates it to their experiences of life and death.
Kumbh Mela Festival, Haridwar, India, Steve McCurry
The Kumbh Mela has been called the world’s largest act of faith and the greatest show on earth. Millions of pilgrims, sadhus and saints, politicians, and tourists arrive on foot, in private jets and helicopters, by taxi, horses, cars and bikes to the largest gathering on the planet.
Steve McCurry, famous for his photo of the Afghan Girl, beautifully captures the effect of religion on the lived experience of the boy. Dressed as Lord Shiva, he waits for pilgrims to offer ‘Him’ respect by offering him some money.
The self concept of ‘the self’ is an ever evolving process guided by various events in a life time. Of importance is the dependence of this evolution on gender in conjunction with the aging process. In most societies as a person matures, he or she is expected to marry a person of the opposite sex, either chosen by the society (parents) or themselves. Marriage represents a tacit agreement for the two people marrying to spend their rest of the lives together in pain or pleasure. Often, the bride leaves her house and comes to stay with the family of the groom, giving males a higher place in the hierarchy of social power. Marriage also represents a change in the concept of personhood for both the male and female involved, more so for the female owing to the significant change in her surroundings and immediate company. Sarah Lamb, in her book “White Saris and Sweet Mangoes: Aging, Gender and the Body in North India” discusses the relationship of aging and gender on notions of self. She presents ethnography of aging population in rural Bengal.
Marriage, Nikhil Rasiwasia
In this photo by Nikhil Rasiwasia, one can see the subtle gesture of the groom supporting the bride with a soft comfort of his hands on her shoulder – signifying taking up her responsibility for rest of her life.
Emotions are an integral part of the existence of self. In historical discussions about the self, emotion has been contrasted with reason. Thus in the pattern of ‘valuable’ vs ‘superfluous’, emotions have fallen into the category of ‘superfluous’. Quoting Nussbaum, they have often been thought as, “unthinking energies that simply push the person around without being hooked up to the ways in which she [a person] perceives or thinks about the world”. Nussbaum in, “Upheavals in Thought”, argues for emotions being – intentional, that is they are directed towards certain objects in the world, and, intelligent, that they are primitive judgments of facts.
Jardin des Plantes, Paris (Couples Embracing; One with Child) – Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Carteri Bresson, one of the most influential photojournalist is famous for capturing moments. In this image he has frozen the moment of two couples kissing, a quintessential gesture for the emotion of Love.
Social inequalities are one of the ramifications of contemporary societies and social structure. Social inequalities results in depersonalization of certain individuals. The presence of these socially abandoned individuals is not experienced by others. Social inequalities are further magnified by the inefficiencies of the public health and welfare system.
Beggar on Street, Steve McCurry
Steve McCurry captures social abandonment on streets. Beggars commonly found in public places requesting for money and spare change, are in many cases abandoned from the society they reside in. They become almost invisible in the daily lives, often only seen as a nuisance.
Martha Nussbaum in “Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions”, defines compassion as a painful emotion in response to someone else’s misfortune. She outlines three different cognitive faculties required for experience of compassion. First, a belief that misfortune is of significance and is not trivial. Second, the misfortune should not have been caused by the person who experiences it. And, third a eudemonistic judgment that the sufferer is of significance to what bring goodness and happiness in my life.
Mother Teresa at her refuge of the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta during prayer. Raghu Rai
When it comes to compassion, one personality entirely captures the essence – Mother Teresa. For over 45 years she administered care and compassion to the poor, sick and orphaned. In this photo by Raghi Rai, she is seen in her prayers.
European style bread is one of the most commonly consumed food item however among the most rare tobe made at home. There is a contrast though: Indian Bread (we prefer to call it Roti) is almost always made at home. So why the discrepancy? We try to find out. Our experiment – making European style bread at home and analyzing what might be the reason, people are averse to the process.
From an algorithmic point of view making bread is very simple.
That is what we did. And guess what, the result was pretty awesome. Freshly baked bread in about two hours. These pictures might do some justice,
However, that one part of the story. Based on the above data it might seem easy to make bread at home, however there are some subtleties
In short, although quite a exhilarating experience to make and eat your own bread, the effort and costs involved are a deterrent. Add to that the experience required to make a quality product, it seems reasonable to buy it from the stores. The world is somewhat sane.
Taking inspiration from Arun, I finally ventured out just for the sake of photography at Torreypines Gliderport. Spent slightly over an hour there. Mild breeze blowing into the face. Rejuvenating moonlight shining atop. Sweet sound of, waves caressing the shores. An good hour spent.
Something about the night photography excites me. The fact that our eyes loose most of its color perception at night implies that any long exposure photo will be unlike our visual experience. The camera sees more that what eyes sees, and that is what adds the mystery element to the photograph. Thumbnailed below are few 30 second exposure at about 10 in the night. I was completely thrilled to see an amazing color play hidden from the eye. The interface between city and the ocean made possible the contrast of blue and yellow. Interesting that is also the colors of the UC system.
The logical person wonders, why does the illogical person think illogically.
So he goes to an illogical person and asks him, “Sir, I wonder why do you think illogically?”
The illogical person replies, “I think illogically because it is illogical to think illogically”. “Ahh!” says the logical person. “But Sir, that is a perfectly logical premise”, he says. “I see a paradox here. The outcome of your thinking is illogical, but the premise behind your thinking is logical. So you are a logical person thinking illogically”. Perplexed, confused, baffled, the illogical person is in a fix. But then he says, “Thats illogical, aint it?” and smiles in peace.
The logical person is dumbfounded.
Can the logical person be helped here?
So finally, after a long time I have been able to rediscovered the joy of blogging. There are both philosophical reasons and practical, this post will just try to highlight some of the practicalities that helped me to get back. Simply put its ‘WordPress‘ and ‘Diwaker‘ (although he still does not know it).
I was dormant on the blog (infact, did not do anything extra from the day of installation) because I wanted a couple of things. Mainly I was not sure how to handle different kinds of posts that I might have. One one hand there are regular text posts, on the other there are regular photoblog posts, in between there are documentary travel photoblog posts. To complicate the matters, I also wanted a place to showcase a portfolio. I was using wordpress just for text blogs, but now updating it to the latest version, I can use is as a complete content management system. To generate travelogue and portfolio, I now post them as regular posts, but under their respective categories. Then using template I can make separate index pages and design them however I want. So I guess, this will make my job lot easier. I also found this plugin for easily retrieving image thumbnails from pixelpost. Had to modify it to my needs, because I dont need latest or random images. I need images from a particular range. Anyhow, thanks to wordpress, I think I will be able to live with this system for a while now.
The second help came from the Thematic Theme (Hat tip Diwaker). Using the template framework of Thematic and a modified frontend from EarlyMorning, I was able to generate the kind of look and feel I wanted. The best part is the decoupling of the backend and frontend of the theme, making it a lot easier to modify.
Whats, left is now to modify the pixelpost stylesheet to match it to the look and feel of the complete blog.
I am thankful to Ishan, to make me come out of my lassitude, and given me an opportunity to document his marriage ceremony. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of shooting at the marriage (although it was pita to edit and pp them). The idea of documenting moments of something so special is exhilarating. In fact I gave a couple of thought to seriously taking up being a pro-hobby-ist marriage photographer. Or any event that does not require design. I mean – I love the constrains involved. You are just present there to document what is, without interfering with the process. Plus, such events have small subtle moments which are usually missed. In this set, I have tried to bring about those moments. Hope you like it.
Ps: Let me start my pro-hobby-ist marriage photographer career here. I am interested to do some more marriage photo-shoots. If you are like the idea behind these pictures, and want to ‘hire’ me, mail me at nikhil.rasiwasia@gmail.com to discuss further :)
“I am a mildly big fan of National Geographic. Although it does not prove anything, but that is the only magazine I subscribe to. While the articles in themselves are of high informational content I always used to wonder what does it take to write one of these articles.”
“An another interesting event happened at Puneet Bhaiya’s place an year back. We were discussing about the education system, and he said that the system here (USA) is much better. For a child growing up in India does not even know that a field, such as Anthropology exists and he can pursue it.”
“I like to take pictures. And write sometimes. But over the years, I have found more meaning if those pictures had a story behind it. More than often, these stories have a human aspect. Or to say an anthropological aspect.”
So, a culmination of all these random thought, excited me to try a course in Anthropology Department at UCSD. After looking at the possible options, two courses stood out. The first one was what they call as ‘culture core’, which talked about theoretical foundations of cultural anthropology. The first class was an introduction to ‘Structuralism‘. Although, interesting, it felt too dry. Moreover, I was probably not allowed to take a core anthropology course. The other option I has was – Mind, Self and Identity. The website description of the course said,
“This seminar critically examines social, cultural, and psychological theories of the person, and their relationship to conceptions of the person found in moral political and religious discourses. It explores the role of concepts of the person in ethnographic research.”
So, its been seven weeks into the course, and I am loving every part of it. This course, can be divided into thee different parts. The first part talked about the concept of a Person, from historical, anthropological and philosophical perspective. This was later extended to the modern concepts of the self, more from a philosophical perspective. Next we read the ethnographies relating to the cultural effects on the concept of personhood. Interestingly, one of them talks about a small village – Mangaldihi in West Bengal. This is where we stand currently. The final section is about Existential and Experiential dimensions of Selfhood (not really sure what it means).
So much for background. I wanted this post to be basically a documentation of the first part of the course. The first part, was more philosophical in nature. We read about various western philosophers and their arguments to what does self entail. It was really interesting to follow a historical path to philosophy of self. Although, expected, but still I was excited to see the Descartes’, “I think therefore I am” being part of the discussion. Anyhow, here I am trying to document, some philosophers who have had something important to say about self. As of now I am providing with some statements from wiki, that best describe the meager knowledge I have about them. Sometimes I supplement it with my statements about their philosophies, hopefully will be able to do justice to them some day.
Please select atmost 2 of these by Friday Night.
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Progressive Car Insurance Cancellation Fee
After 4 years of insurance with Progressive I now shifted to AAA. Progressive used to charge me $150 for the motorcycle and last year when I bought my car, my premium increased to ~$650 a year, for including a car. AAA, which in my unverified study is as good as Progressive if not better, quoted me less than half of that premium. I guess there comes a point when loyalty stops serving its purpose.
Well then, I come back home to cancel my policy with Progressive, and I told them all truth about someone else giving me better rates for the same service. It went something like this,
So next I know is that I have been charged $50 as a cancellation fee. Now, its not a matter of why did they charge me. I would have been completely fine as they must have had written somewhere in their 6point font about cancellation fees, and have the full right to charge it, but I do not appreciate them doing this, because there is a simple way to get around this. This is what the trick is,
And, I did call them back asking if this was true. Every word of this is true. If you lie to them that you are moving out of state, they will not charge you the $50 cancellation fee. Alas, I only came to know of this after being true to them. I hope my friends reading this and having a policy with progressive and if in future decide to move away from progressive can be saved of this nefariousness.