Do you want fries with that?

[scully]

A youngster with a snotty nose and a packet of chips in Sa Pa in Vietnam.

[KimC]

Stephen, what meaning should we get from this? I'm always careful of images I post of children, and I'm not sure of the meaning behind this one.

[scully]

Hey, now I am taking offence, I resent your feminist misandrist implication.

[KimC]

I believe you misinterpreted my question -- all I was asking was what meaning did you want us as viewers to derive from the image -- your description didn't say much? Is the purpose an environmental portrait, or street photography perhaps? This child makes me sad -- cut on his/her head, dirty nose, and dirty sweater.

Hey, now I am taking offence, I resent your feminist misandrist implication.

[James G]

Hey, now I am taking offence, I resent your feminist misandrist implication.

That's an awful lot to read into what seems a simple question!

[scully]

Stephen, what meaning should we get from this? I'm always careful of images I post of children, and I'm not sure of the meaning behind this one.

I have no trouble with your question. It is the second sentence that I object to, telling me to be careful about posting images of children. That implies that people may think that I have other intentions besides photography. You do not know me and your implication was that people will make assumptions about my image and about me.

For the record, this child was in my life for less than 60 seconds. I passed by and took a shot, the mother was right there.

You can criticise my technique all you want, that is what I am on this site for, but do not cast aspersions on my intentions.

It is not cool.

[scully]

That's an awful lot to read into what seems a simple question!

If you think I have jumped to conclusions, fair enough. Your call. What interpretation would you put on someone telling you to be careful about posting images of children?

If you want to talk about poverty and the reaction to the image, I am good, let's go. If you want to talk about white balance or depth of field, I am good, let's go, but the warning was, in my opinion, out of line.

[James G]

I'll keep it simple then...

1) your image doesn't really do it for me. If you intended to portray poverty, deprivation or any other social issue, both the titling and description you provided failed to convey that. Rather, I thought both inappropriate (if descriptive), and somewhat disparaging to the subject.

2) From a purely 'technical' point of view, for me, the composition is unbalanced with the finger (of the mother,) which is visible bottom right, distracting.
3) If it had been my image I would probably have converted to B&W to harden the mood, and cropped considerably tighter.

What interpretation would you put on someone telling you to be careful about posting images of children?

To be honest it has never happened to me, and in truth, I don't think that is what happened here.

However, I appreciate that you perceived an implication in Kim's initial reply, and as such fully entitled to address that.

But, I read your intemperate and frankly abusive response as deliberately insulting and demeaning to another member of this forum which did not address your issue.

'nuff said'...there will be no further posts from me in respect of this thread.

[rpcrowe]

I am noy usually as philosophical as this comment indicates...

What I see in this image is the Western World (in the form of a McDonald's type of fry) invading the Third World, perhaps not for the betterment of that world.