Show your face
In Focus: National Geographic Greatest Portraits
This Thursday, May 20, from 5 to 7 pm, the the Duluth Art Institute is opening its latest exhibit “In Focus: National Geographic Greatest Portraits.” Portrait stations will be set up along side the professional photos on view – visitors to the opening are invited to bring a camera and friends to try their own hand at the unique process of capturing a sitter’s story.
I like that photo, it is a great photo… but it has been used a godawful amount of times. I wish it would be retired from use for 20 years or so.
That girl has a name, Sharbat Gula, and a history. Come hear one of the gallery talks associated with this show to hear some commentary on the ways that National Geographic simultaneously shows us “exotic” people, and conceals much about how people live, and how photographers compose the images we have of people.
Here’s a brief follow-up that National Geographic did about Sharbat Gula, including a more recent photo of her as an adult: