In Protest by Yalda Pashai-F
I am a 20 year old photography student currently studying at Ryerson University in Toronto where I learn to express my opinions and inner feelings through image-making. Born in Iran, I always believed in freedom and equality. In this spirit, I participated with the protest to close down the School of the Americas funded by the U.S. Army, located in Fort Benning, Georgia. The protesters are composed of various peacemakers and are here dressed as the dead. This particular image is from a series based on this protest.
(editors note: Yalda is a student assistant for the Magnum workshops going on now during the Contact Photography Festival in Toronto….i may also publish some of the best from all 6 workshops running now. -david alan harvey)
Well, the photo is fine technically. You have a good eye.
Compelling photograph, I am in awe…
The girls stare draws me into the monitor and the painted white face with the splash of red is disturbing in a surreal way. This by far is my favorite single photograph I have seen for a while on Burn. In another sense it feels like either a still from a horror movie or a frame from an experienced photo-journalist. Bravo!
Thankyou,
Johan
hauntingly beautiful
JIM…JOHAN…
i just left a note for both of you under Dima post…i think young Yalda is a classic example of the generation who rely on the net for their information….Jim, i think you would be quite impressed with the commitment of this generation towards the very ideals you so often express….
cheers, david
Yalda,
We have so many, but yet we need so many more, like you, down here, at the bottom of the world. You have a good heart…. Change does not come easy. Keep working…
beautiful Photograph
(reminder: if you can’t see the picture, access thru May archives, as I just did)
Funny how we all respond differently to a picture as far as its intrinsec quality. I will take the DAH amendment on this one (the DAHmendment): Judge pictures against the best in the genre. It’s an apt image, but somehow does not strike me as “hauntingly beautiful”. Not sure where it’s missing something for me, but I will try. Maybe her face should had been the only flesh in the composition, maybe the large foreground figure swears/eats against the superb curtain formed in the background. Maybe she is, it seems to me, a daughter of one of the women, and her gaze comes out derivatively, more than from concentration to the cause they all gathered for.
I am also perplexed, for no reason probably, why they dressed in a way that we do not think about death, but iranian women answering an Imam’s call.
David, I agree. I hope the web provides them an outlet for their work, as well. With print newspapers and magazines dying by the day, it is the outlet of the future. Hopefully, efforts like Burn will give not only photographers like Yalda a venue for their work, but a place for non-photographers to see it.
Jim, you seem to have more to say about this photograph?
I responded in a way similar to Herve, and was confused by the connection of the image to the text. I looked up the school and this is from the School of the Americas Watch site (http://www.soaw.org/)
“The US Army School of Americas (SOA), based in Fort Benning, Georgia, trains Latin American security personnel in combat, counter-insurgency, and counter-narcotics. SOA graduates are responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in Latin America. In 1996 the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals used at the school that advocated torture, extortion and execution. Among the SOA’s nearly 60,000 graduates are notorious dictators”
I understand better the need for a protest, but for me the depiction of a child who might not fully grasp why she is participating is possibly not the strongest depiction of the cause..as a stand alone image though, without need or interest of conveying this message of protest, I find its strength in its ambiguity and open-endedness.
As an Image I quite like it. As a device to support the mentioned protest it fails for me.
for me great!
i think this is a stunning image. nice work.
Good work, Yalda. I’ve not participated in the School of the Americas protests but over the past 20 years have been part of more peace demonstrations than I could count. And I’ve documented most of them with my camera so I know firsthand the challenges in trying to come up with an image that is both artistic and accurate. You, my friend, have succeeded where I so often failed. I congratulate you both on your photographic skills and your active commitment to peace.
Patricia
A beautiful photograph. Such powerful use of color and composition to bring the focus to the face of this young girl. i particularly like that we see only her face in full, and parts of others. I also like so much the pale red of her eyes and the blistering red of the flower and the drops sprayed all over the black. These protesters certainly had an eye for theater. Very, very nice!
I have no problem using a child to symbolically represent the scores of innocent lives lost to torture, secret police death squads, executions, disappearances and massacres in Latin America not to mention newborn babies kidnapped from political prisoners (who were executed right after childbirth) and given to military personnel in Argentina. Children are always the most shocking victims of conflict as illustrated in the Uganda essay. Why should a child not participate in a protest against the training center for the dictators and military leaders guilty of destroying so many of their lives?
Thank you, Yalda for your interest and participation in this protest and for documenting it with such a poetically strong image. This photo represents the concept and visual metaphor of the protest. It is an ‘auto’ document of the day. It’s not a journalistic photo that says, “these people did this today”. It’s clearly shot by someone whose heart is with these protestors, who is trying to say, “we did this today”.
Oh, and my maiden name is Ryerson, so i have always been especially interested in Ryerson University. i recall once many years ago googling my surname and being overwhelmed by page after page……after page…..of URL addresses from R.U. You must certainly have a huge and dynamic IT department :))
DAH, please see my post to you in the “On a Roll” dialogue. Maybe it will mean something to you. It did to me.
best to all:
kat~
KAT
I also don’t see a problem in general for the use of a child as a symbol of the above mentioned, but in this example the usage doesn’t hit home for me, something in her expression seems like she is more taken with the photographer than the cause.
It’s a lovely photo, but it seems weird that it’s from a staged protest and not from the Arab world. So once we read the caption, the power of the image is immediately voided. Also, as Erica notes, the School of the Americas is usually associated with Latin American shenanigans, and the image here tries to evoke the Middle East. These various incongruities overwhelm the picture, in my humble opinion.
People keep referring to the subject as a child. Do we know her age? Maybe she is just very young looking. She could be in her early 20′s.
I’d like to disclose that I have no background in photography, yet I am a Political Science graduate, and I am Iranian/Canadian. As far as I understand, The School of Americas, now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, is a training facility designed to produce intelligence, and military graduates with specialization in the affairs specific to the Americas, not the Middle East. The above image clearly displays the suffering of Middle Eastern women. I can see why the protesters would use this demonstration as a platform to exemplify the pervasive affects of US foreign policy.
When first seeing this image, I experienced a natural inclination towards it. This primarily had to do with the fact that it evoked feelings and memories that tie back to my childhood. On second glance, I was drawn to the dark imagery of the image. I find no deception in this image, and take it for what it is, which is a group of disgruntled protesters trying to educe fervor through theatrics. I commend their effort for attempting to do this, and they are fortunate that a talented photographer was present to capture it and display it for the world to see. I believe the context of this image gives it its ultimate meaning. Although esthetically pleasing, I am reminded of the rampant suffering of people at the hands of foreign influence when viewing this image. So if that was the intended message, well done!
P.S I doubt that’s a child in the image.
Pete, Arash..would bet anything it is a child, I would guess around 9 to 11 years old..
Loading the image into photoshop, and undoing the extreme darkening of the original image done there, the figures in the middle appear to be kneeling. So it’s likely, I would say, that it’s a young women. Too much PS manipulation of images going on.
How do we know she is not also kneeling?
Load it into ACR and hit “Auto.” Take a look for yourself.
fantatic CSI has just arrived at Burn! I want to be Gil Grissom!
“Maybe her face should had been the only flesh in the composition, maybe the large foreground figure swears/eats against the superb curtain formed in the background.”
Maybe the photographer should have stopped everyone from what they are doing and done some stage management. JEEZ! It is what it is. And for me it looks great! I am a bit too irritated to find the right words now, but DAH has expressed the fact that there is almost always something that could have been better when shooting a live event. Maybe he can chime in and explain what I am thinking.
“extreme darkening of the original image done there”
OH FOR FUCK SAKE! Unless you have access to the “original” file or film, do not accuse this photographer for “Too much PS manipulation” It may very well have been burned down a bit, but it certainly does not look over worked to me.
And looking at the image after opening up the shadows still does not tell me she is not kneeling. Damn Jim you have a lot of time on your hands!
I just checked with the bugs, they tell me that she’s actually standing, it’s an optical illusion produced by the kneeling women around her, she‘s 7-9 yrs old, 4’6’’, fair skin and likes ice-cream.
the praying mantis has also told me that Jim is being presumptions with the digital manipulation, the mantis mentioned that exposing the image with ‘average exposure’ would have blown entirely in highlights the reflective value of the face; this image had to be exposed for the face and thus shoved the cloaks into shadows.
that being said the beetle says, “hey you never really no for sure, it could be the product of a new hi-dynamic range camera we’ve never heard of yet.
Sorry Yalda, by the way, I’m not keen on your decision to push up this image, I think 5202 was much more telling and less familiar to what we would expect.
Best wishes.
“and her gaze comes out derivatively, more than from concentration to the cause they all gathered for.”
Again, I think there is WAY too much analysis.
I gather that someone has thrown or spattered whatever that red stuff is on the protesters. How do we know that it did not just happen and come from the direction of the photographer? How do we know that the girl is not just reacting to that moment. Maybe she is looking a the photographer thinking “can you believe someone just did that?”
Or maybe she is thinking “damn, I can’t believe that now there will be a bunch of people seeing this on the internet and spending their day trying to figure out why I am here, how old I am, why I am looking at the camera……. and on and on and on….
Peter, take a chill pill, at least it’s all been exploratory, sure, clumsy, cringe-worthy, and border-line absurd, but it could be worse, we could be telling her that photographing this protest is killing some dophins somewhere!
Joe,
give it time…. love the bugs.
i love you Peter :-) glad you lightened up, i don’t like to see you in such torment :-)
Tormented? Not at all.
But when I read shit like I have been reading I do my ferret with Tourette’s impersonation.
As I explain to my wife… If I don’t let this shit out… I could very well spontaneously combust. And then there would be shit everywhere! (grin)
Hey it’s almost O-beer-thirty! Happy Friday!
Oh and… “at least it’s all been exploratory”
I could really say something funny there…
Great reading, the reponses are so telling of the complexity of reading an image(always good if for a good cause, but here on BURN, we are definitely interested in the power of images and photography per se, it’s our passion for being here and should stay our main concern) complexity which is dealt simply by some (wonderful cause, great shot) taking the image for granted.
While others question it and its uncertain message, even propagandizing (though I am quite certain Yalda’s goal was not propaganda, it’s just that photos can often leave their maker’s intention, For ex. i could imagine such photo used in Iran as imagery against american satanism).
Just the fact that we may argue if she is a child or not tell us about that complexity of reading, and how we respond to it.
The next argument, about having a child in a demonstration, no problem in itself, saves also babay-sitting money. Here, yes, she might be even a young woman, that is not IMO the problem. the weakness here is that her face is turning nicely for a timely fine classic “face in a crowd” photography, but is not conveying any gravity or momentousness, relating to the dramatic outplay going on.
IMO.
Damned, I forgot to rewrite “,possibly propagandizing…” before my first parenthesed sentenced (always godd…). I need to let you know so it makes sense.
Again, I think there is WAY too much analysis.
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Not at all Peter. The image did not make a strong effect on me, though it obviously had all the ingredients for a superlative composition, and not writing to my Mom, but on BURN, I thought it dutiful to try to write why it was so, especially since I constantly criticize lauding or dismissive one-liner.
Moreover, I speak really about stuff that is concretely in the frame, not philosophying outside of it, free for others to see me misinterpretating what I see. That’s the whole fun of the exercice.
i think this is a wonderful image… and the website is very very nice too… i think as a image it works very well for me… its powerful… clean and very well shot… the whole essay of this (visit site) is amazing… very powerful and meaningful! i like were the photographer has taken me with these set of images…. if you have time… please check out the site along with the essay… its amazing… very very nice work! beautiful and sad…
I gather that someone has thrown or spattered whatever that red stuff is on the protesters. How do we know that it did not just happen and come from the direction of the photographer? How do we know that the girl is not just reacting to that moment. Maybe she is looking a the photographer thinking “can you believe someone just did that?”
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See, Peter, you yourself see much that might seem over-interpretating to others. Case made!
To me, the red, symbol of victims of tyranny, was poured on as an integral part of the demonstration going on (as it’s an ubiquitous symbol in many human rights marches)… totally under-analysing here! :-))))
I am not over interpreting. Obviously someone has splattered the protesters with something red.
THEN I just asked some questions.
Well, then let’s just ask Yalda what the blood is doing there.
THEN I just asked some questions.
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Yes, me too: that’s what “maybe” means in a sentence.
Isn’t there something about downloading pics and copyright……
Nope. There’s something about publishing those pics and copyright.
Ah yes Jim I seem to remember from another post copyright isn’t your thing.
I don’t represent other people’s work as my own.
You download images all the time and don’t even think about it. What do you think your browser is caching to make pages load faster?
Taking a copy of a work is an infringement, photocopies are infringements.
see http://www.cla.co.uk/copyright_information_aboutcopyright.php
You need to tell that to the browser makers, then.
And your link only applies to the EU.
PS>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> We talk PhotoShop the kid’s probably more interested in PlayStation than being there
Too right Imants
hmm, that is if she ever knew what joy she would get from a playstation
:))))
It’s amazing how people over analyze everything and don’t even realize it. I think we need to pause and appreciate what the photograph is trying to represent.
I took this picture when I was 18 year-old and was focused on how to illustrate the mood of the environment in a single shot. This has absolutely nothing to do with Iran, Islam, or women and hijab, but I am aware that it might resemble these topics. Because I mentioned I’m Iranian, could this have something to do with your assumption of the picture being taken in Iran or representing the hijab?
The people in this image are painted in white and dressed in black with fake blood splattered all over them ONLY to represent the dead people who have been brutally massacred by the students trained in SOA. These people are protesting in front of the gates of school.
To answer some of the above questions/curiosities: The kid is an 8/9 year-old girl; I have only changed a bit of the contrast of this image, everything else is original (no cropping, etc); everyone around the circle are standing up except the few people sitting in the middle while the little girl is kneeling.
I am overwhelmed and appreciate all your responses regarding this photograph.
:)
YaldaP.
Ps. Please check back my website in couple weeks as i will be updating it :)
Thanks
YaldaP.