Prompt: Above you have viewed the work of Scarlett Coten. What are your reactions to the work? Do you find the series interesting? Why or why not? What is going on in the imagery? Choose the image that you find most interesting to write about in more depth. Why is that particular image striking to you? Label your description so that others can refer to your chosen piece. The top image is one, the second is two, and so on. After writing your initial reactions, read the commentary below. Has your opinion of the work changed after gaining more information about the work? Why or why not?
Still Alive
photographs and text by Scarlett Coten
It’s six in the morning and in this month of February I’m crossing a border on foot for the first time! It gives me a real sense of adventure. I leave Taba in a crowded taxi, radio cassette playing in the background, and let myself be carried away, totally alert, toward the unknown. A desert road leads to the water, circled to the west by the mountains of South Sinai. Now and then, a few huts lie flattened on a pure sky, facing Saudi Arabia some miles away. Only a ship traveling to Jordan separates sea from sky. Outside, a narrow strip of beach, men in robes and kefieh, some camels, a huge wooden porch opening onto a horizon of sand. The Red Sea is turquoise, a light bulb swings over a pool table, the wind carries the smell of the sea and songs of love drift through the open windows. The end of the line: Tarabin, a small coastal village. Aïd, the driver, tells me that he is Bedouin and my curiosity is aroused. I accept his invitation and settle in one of their homes, a few kilometers away in the lone hut at the edge of the water. Friends and acquaintances appear, some speak a few words of English, in the evening they grill beautiful fish and invite me around the fire. Two men, in passing, ask me to accompany them to their village, a day’s journey away, in the middle of the desert. They are cheerful and considerate, proud to reveal their world to me. The next day wedged between them on the seat of a bone-shaking pick-up, the crossing takes my breath away. The village is a collection of scattered houses, arranged without apparent logic. Low, rectangular, with corrugated iron roofs and outside courtyards. A few electric poles. No cafeteria or bus station, not even a store. Here, you’re invited – or you are lost. I feel a thrill at the idea of being so deprived of my free will. But the welcome is amazing. Women lightly touch the men’s inclined foreheads and then greet me with a hand placed quickly over the heart. Night falls, in a few moments, a piece of oilcloth on the sand, a shared dish of rice and lamb, a cup passes around the gathering, we’re surrounded by a few men who have joined us and who speak a language that I do not understand, I feel at my ease, and happy. This is the beginning of a long history of love between these people and me, between this country and me. "56,000 miles of nothing" wrote Loti, the Khala, this empty country will become my Eden, my second family. Later I will travel this desert from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Gulf of Suez, from Rafah to Dahab, from Abu-Zenima to Naqhl, from Sarabit to Ras Abu Galum. Day after day I photograph my journey. What happens, what surrounds me, those I meet. My backdrops are the desert, our travels, stopovers. My breadcrumb trail is these. I photograph those who invite me to, those who ask me to, all those who pose. They are at the heart of this project. Gestures, laughter replace speech. The time is different, the people too. The summer is hot. From one shadow to another, we inhale every current of air, every wave of wind. I no longer know which day it is, we live in the present. Photography is a rarity for them and my camera never leaves them indifferent. A joyous complicity develops. The men joke in lascivious poses, the women make their black veils, embroidered with flashing pearls, fly. The generator runs for a few hours a day, the sheikh has a television satellite dish, installed under the stars. Everybody benefits, a bare light bulb flickers over the screen, we switch channels: football, live concerts from Arabia, Egyptian melodrama, CNN, we laugh. Some have never seen a foreigner, they demand my presence. Faced with so much novelty, surprise, kindness, I fall into the rhythm, I dissolve. I gain the trust of women, who show me their private areas. In their bright dresses, between a heart-shaped clock and a stylized palm tree on the wall, the Bedouin pose with all the seriousness and attention that a new experience requires. They smoke, raising their veils with one hand. I love these cheerful, curious people, who agree to pose. With delight. So, between reality and fiction, I photograph the inward journey, I'm witness to my experience, following the thread of my inspiration, where play and mise en scène bring us together, beyond our own cultures, for a moment of shared happiness. At each reunion, I am welcomed by these words: "still alive! " These photographs are the illustration of the humor, the enthusiasm, and the modernity of an unknown people. Forgotten, threatened, but alive. – Scarlett Coten
10 comments:
Kasen, Period 4
My instent reaction to this series is that some of the pictures show opposites in a single culture, weather it be true or not those opposites show in the world. This peice of work seems to bring the opposites together and give an inside look at where the opposites meet to create an average, bright, colorful women that they all truely are. I really enjoyed these photographs.
Again, great start Kasen...take a step further now. Choose one image to write about in more depth:
From the prompt...
"Choose the image that you find most interesting to write about in more depth. Why is that particular image striking to you? Label your description so that others can refer to your chosen piece."
Kasen, Period 4
Image six:
I choose this image because of the total differnce between sterio type and reality. The picture of the women shows the outer shell of a culture where women stay in the background and choose not to show the other side. While on the other hand the picture of the car shows the more fun and play-full side.
This type of work is something that I have always wanted to do. It explains other cultures and how different they can actually be. This work, especially, speaks to me. I do not agree with the reason why these women started covering themselves up from society. But I do agree with their right as people to choose how they present themselves. These images seem to show those particular women, and their own living environments. I also think that the other picture has to deal with their husbands in some way.
The ninth image: this frightened me. At first, the woman does not even seem human. After gazing at her, I look to the picture beside her. I cannot quite make out what this image is showing. The strings remind me of a child’s swing but the setting makes me think of a hanging piece of meat. This image also frightens me; I feel uncomfortable while observing it.
My opinion changes slightly after the reading. I could not help but think that these images were negative, but now I know that those women appear happy and friendly to outsiders seeking adventure as well as education from a very different culture then their own.
Stephanie Latendresse
Period five
5-6
Ps. the reading was practically seizure inducing ;)
I find these images soooooo interesting, not only because of the contrast between the "western" culture and their culture. I dislike how women cover their faces, because some of those women have the mos stricking facil expressions that anyone has ever seen. I find the work super amazing. This is the type of art that i find interesting, the whole contrast between two worlds.
Image six: This is the perfect example of the combination of two wordls, the fan, and the pikachu(don't know if I spelled it right xD)and the whole traffic. I really like the woman's outfit. I love the combination of black and green.I insist I don't like how they cover their faces :(
My opinion does not change at all after the reading. Even if the words of the artist may not make much sense to many people they do to me, because he seems like he writes carefully. His words make me feel like I'm really there, with those people, in that dessert. Feeling the hot breeze, and not knowing what day is it. To me those women seemed happy, accepting the contrast of two worlds in one.
P.S
OMGGGGG! I loved the reading
it's those kinds of readings that leave you hanging and wanting more!
Eli Groves
Traveling to a foreign country can be pleasant. It can also be tricky. The volume of this trickiness it turned up a notch when traveling from modern America. Stepping into an unfamiliar culture can often seem like a step through time. I feel this way when viewing this imagery. What I see, what is all around me, looks like a less advanced society, a culture written by different norms.
The setting seems hostile, and I feel uneasy. What are these women hiding from? What is the significance of the adjacent images? These questions define tricky travel. Different cultures have different mannerisms or behavioral habits. What seems normal and welcome to us can be utterly insulting or threatening to them. This causes confusion which leads to frustration, ultimately making travel tricky. I don’t feel particularly happy when gazing at this series, but rather I feel extremely unwelcome.
A sense of fear lingers around the second image. The woman looks ‘unexpected’ or caught off guard. The tombstone (if it is a tombstone), gives an awkward impression, as if out of place. My aura glows yellow like a coward as I stare into this photograph.
That sense of fear was more a sense of curiosity and wonder. There is no hostility, no frustration, but only enthusiasm and pleasure. It’s interesting how I gain a sense of negativity from a series of photographs meant to be upbeat.
When i first glance at this series, it strikes me as rather funny. I think that its a group of highly religious people that are with things that a normal teenage kid would love.
I think this image is showing that no matter where you are in the world, everyone still likes the same things.
I particularly favor the picture with the pikachu in the car (6). Its very random and makes me smile whenever i see it.
My opinion of the pictures are still exactly the same, theyre meant to be humorous, and they are. I find this pictures every entertaining.
This is probably the most confusing set of images I have ever seen. I find the images interesting and Iwant to learn more about them. All of the photos have one person and on the other side they have something random and it makes me wonder what the purpose of the random thing is. Right now I think that the 'random thing' is and image of what they like to do or something they like.
I like the eight image the most. It makes me think that the person is being a rebel or just different. This picture is different than the rest. In this photo you can see her sort of smile and in the other photographs the people are just blank or too covered up to notice their expressions. She is also smoking and is doing it without caring she even has her pack out in the open. In the other images the people look a little more uncomfortable and plain.
Gustavo
Photo 3-4
Period 5
I was uninterested in this series. I understand some form of juxtaposition used to show a relationship between each image and the image its next to. Yet, I find myself losing interest in each image. I also see how these people have different cultures, and I do like how they have an opportunity to present their true selves to the outside world. The image I found most interest in was number nine. The subjects themselves just drew me in more than the others.
The work seems very random, though I do find it interesting. In every picture there is a woman on one side whose face and body are covered, and on the other side are pictures of what seem to be everyday objects. I find the eighth picture the most interesting, because of the colors in the picture, the yellow and blue background, and the fact that it’s a picture of a woman smoking, and then a picture of a television just catches my eye. After reading the description, my opinion hasn’t changed, but I do find the artist’s experiences fascinating.
Olivia Ottinger
Period 5
Photo 5-6
10/19/09
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