The project took a look at the emotional life of man – from birth to death with love and loss, tragedy and triumph and everything in between. With each emotion and each moment – photographs from around the world showed that people from every corner and far reach of the planet has similar experiences and realities. The more particular the life event – the stronger the point was made. Ring Around the Rosie, for example, seemed like such a brief and obscure moment of an American childhood. Then you see a circle of children hand in hand from the USA and the USSR, from Switzerland, Romania, Peru, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Israel, China and Japan and the differences that we perceive begin to dissolve away.
The exhibit reminds of the potential of a portrait. The power to be emotive and evocative and to connect ourselves emotionally as a viewer to the subject. Pausing for a moment on each of twenty portraits of people from fifteen different countries of people that were laughing – I found myself laughing by the end. By the time a review of a series was finished of people overcome with pain and heartbreak – I found my chest constricting in a precursor to tears. We all bleed, we all laugh and love and hurt and pass. We are all human.
I am incredibly fortunate to be working on a project in Jakarta, Indonesia. Jakarta is literally the opposite end of the earth. When it is 11:00 in the evening here and our day is retired; it is 11:00 in the morning in Jakarta and they are planning for lunch. Many people there are astonishingly poor. They have little and live in conditions that are so lacking that I am unable to quite wrap my mind around the reality of existing in the way they do. Yet the people there are so incredibly wonderful. They are so happy, so polite and so full of love. It feels so good to be with them and to interact with them.
We have similarities and differences between our cultures, but the element that I find most curious is the desire to move toward American culture. Shopping malls are huge and American models are plastered on the walls. American news stations broadcast on television. Most of the movies in theaters are from the States as well as much of the music and books.
Quite frankly, the movement makes me cringe a little. I love being an American and living in the United States. It took me traveling to the opposite end of the earth and experiencing the people there to really understand how unhappy we are. There is always something to complain about, something to condemn and something to lash out at. A man here claims to be a man of peace and then vomits bile and hatred on social media. A person of faith promotes tolerance and understanding and then condemns other faiths and orientations. A politician pontificates noble and profound policies and then legislates to special interests and hidden agendas. Media, both professional as well as our own social media, is constantly showing examples of people being oppressed or discriminated against because of the very thing that makes them an individual – whether their religion, gender, orientation, politics or the color of their skin. And the opposing side has their say and often times they use their voice to justify the oppression or the acts of discrimination being committed.
