on Wendy Ewald and Born into Brothels: linguistics, gender, power, relation, hope… For they cannot be separated, can they?
I like Ewald’s books. I like her work, and her book has been useful to me as I teach photo, art, video to kids. I use it as a starting point, something to jump off of when I am feeling energized and creative, something to return to when things run amuk and get confusing and difficult. Not so much as a guiding light, more like a set of ideas and practices that are tried and true- lessons to fall back on, things that have worked in photo ed with kids all over and things I can make work if I need to. Importantly, though, they should be used to build from, not as a direct blue print.
Now- Born into Brothels. Its disturbing because it is so euro-centric in its approach to working with the kids and conceptualizing them. Everything is in relation to the center, this white woman teacher with an English accent. She is like the coming of the messiah, saving, trying to save, the martyr, the hope, the one working tirelessly who we can give our spare change to cover costs for… The little boy who stares into the distance, proclaiming the future for others and telling the stories they have given him in exchange for a vow of secrecy he violates. The photos, the bad video editing with childrens’ mouths moving, the subtitles adding 45 seconds later and the sound coming 45 seconds after that. Now come on. But back to the issues, the construction of this community as devestated, of the children as victims. CHildren who want to “get out,” who need education, who will end up working the line. It doesn’t validate the power and success of the families, communities, mothers, children. I’m not advocating that children don’t need access to education. but I am suggesting that that education may look very different than the eurocentric model, and most improtantly, I am suggesting that their community be constructed as powerful leaders in the fight for education.
Media is supposed to be transformatory, not martyrdom.I don’t care who you are, once you enter a relationship with children you have a responsibility to construct them as powerful cultural beings. You have a responsibility to imagine them, photograph and shoot video of them, that is empowering and hopeful. Soing so lets them somehow begin to aprtner with you in hope, to imagine power and to collaborate with others for power.
Radical opposite of the rat movie from last week, which is everything this has the potential to be.
And this is where I think Ewald needs to go beyond her photo curricula and think about linguistics, power, relation, hope…
For they cannot be separated, can they?
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