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Kal Khogali | all galleries >> Beyond The Seen - Book Preview >> BEYOND THE SEEN >> Tradition > A smile carries a burden
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21-MAY-2005

A smile carries a burden

Stoicism is a vertue in a place where the odds are stacked against you. To smile is to acknowledge your fate but to have joy in other things, who is the odd one out here, me or her?

Canon EOS 20D
1/125s f/8.0 at 17.0mm iso400 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time21-May-2005 08:48:42
MakeCanon
ModelCanon EOS 20D
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length17 mm
Exposure Time1/125 sec
Aperturef/8
ISO Equivalent400
Exposure Bias
White Balance (-1)
Metering Modematrix (5)
JPEG Quality (6)
Exposure Programshutter priority (2)
Focus Distance

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Guest 25-May-2006 16:24
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Guest 11-May-2006 17:38
If you were not there.My burden would be of regrettable endurance.But,it is your prescence,the acknowledging care and respect from your eyes,that makes my next step ahead in this lifeday a happier one.I can lift my feet and lighten my shouders as my path has not been alone and empty.That your strength of believing in me has become my strength for this moment.
Phil Douglis21-May-2005 22:04
And post it you should. Never ever fail to post an image you think has expressive potential, or one that may not but still be a good learning example for you. This gallery is not a place to post your "best" work -- it is a place to post work you can learn from. This teaches you a wonderful lesson. It's the linkage between the subject and the viewer that works here. By looking at us with that wonderfully incongruous gap toothed smile, we are looking at the face of ancient China itself, yet a thousand years later.

In her expression and bearing there is facade, no complaint -- just happiness to be working, no matter how heavy the burden. This is one of those images that succeeds as expression even without much abstraction. The incongruity of gap toothed smile and the pleasure of toil activates the imagination just as much as if she was walking into a pool of light from an abstracted dark context.

The key of course is human values: optimism and good humor for starters! I can just feel the wheels in her head moving -- "why is he using that fancy camera on me" must have crossed her mind, and then she saw the irony of it all -- carrying a bag of waste on her back, a scene right out of the middle ages, and yet here I am being photographed because of it! So she goes along with it, and with you and with us, and it makes an unforgettably expressive image.
Kal Khogali21-May-2005 08:19
I gave in Phil,and posted it. She expresses optimism. I fealt that if I did not post it, I would have failed her. I think this is borderline expressive (when compared to the other two images in this gallery at the moment), though it has so much greater Human Values. She was not posing, she just gave me that smile without missing a step. I made it B&W to emphsise the timelessness of that virtue, and the place where she is, right in the centre of Shanghai,where in some parts time is just standing still.
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