Guest photographers

 It's really easy to get cute pics of kids around here. As you might notice, however, I tend to not to take pictures of people, unless they're far away (so they're unrecognizable) or known (so I assume I have permission to take their pics). I mean, kids are cute by nature (except in Songkran festival, when they become vicious water gunners) here and everywhere. They looked even cuter here, as the striking poverty makes their smiles shine brighter amidst the lack of toys, clothes, and so many other basic things. Most of them would happily pose in front of a camera, so why not shoot tons? I have an issue with the power of the camera to create an even bigger gap between them and I. I mean, animals are cute too, but these are people like you and I!!! They must be treated somehow better than simple photo opportunities!

Maybe it's my issue, but for me, taking pictures of people is a way of connecting, of making them feel closer to me rather than putting them away only as objects to be photographed. So I tend to question myself about how to establish an even relationship between me and whoever is on the other side of the camera, if there's some sort of "Fair photographing", paying respect to the photographed's humanness the same way that I'd like to be treated (nothing totally new, anyways. Susan Sontag talked about cameras, guns and violations  back in the 70's -check "On Photography").

So, these limitations came evident after kayaking for 6 hours in the gorgeous Nam Tha river in northern Laos, in a great group of 2 guides and 8 tourists. We arrived into a tiny village populated by Khmu people where around 50 kids were playing in the river shore and, as soon as we landed, they took the kayaks and goofed around! How cute! And then they posed for anybody willing to take pictures, doing whatever cuteness kids can do. How to avoid taking the camera out and bang bang, start shooting?!? Sarah took a few pics (kind of a way to encourage me to shoot) but I needed some sort of wild card to feel OK doing it.

Maybe it's my male, geek-leaning personality, but who doesn't like to play with new toys, especially those that you're not supposed to touch? So I lent the camera to the kids, taught them how to use it and let them take pics of whatever they wanted.  It was quite refreshing, I have to say, to see them shooting pics! The adults who seemed to be looking after the kids looked happy and curious as well, so after letting them play for a while I felt OK to take some pics of them.

And here are some and their shots! As you might suppose, the main attractions were... us, the falangs (foreigners in Lao). It was funny to see the kids pointing at us saying 'falaaaang!!!' and seconds later... hear a click from the camera!





For some reason my tummy was the subject of a few shots. Maybe because they pointed straight, and since they're shorter, that's what they got... don't know really



This definitely opened the way for us to pose for them...

I taught one kid how to flip the camera screen, so he could take a self portrait. Here's what he got of himself:

After they got bored photographing falangs, they turned around to shoot new pics. Some shots turned up quite good, I have to say. (I did a bit of cropping, I admit, but the shooting wasn't mine)

At this point I felt that we were comfortable enough with each other, so I asked the kids if I could take a few pics of them. Of course, the pics turned cute! (Well, some of them were crap but blame the photographer for that) Still, I don't want to idealize the kids, they are no less and no more than others! I mean, if I were raised next to a river with almost no clothes nor toys, struck by the sun every day, wouldn't I react like they did? I might have been cute... I'd be certainly excited handling a photo camera given by a falang...