I appreciate your questions: What's the image for? And thank you for the links. I look forward to reading more. This is something we think about often. One thing we have experimented with is having a newsletter that is authentically a family update and about things we are learning and seeing in our host culture. It is only sent to people we have relationships with and who have a certain level of understanding about our context. We rarely share pictures of people and if we do it is almost always a picture that our friends have decided to take (a group shot, our kids and theirs, etc) and then shared with us. I ask if I can share it with friends and family. Our purpose is usually to show the beauty and hospitality we experience here. (Taking pictures without permission, let alone sharing them, is a fineable offense in our host country and it is a sensitive area in some people's belief systems - maybe this has helped shaped our level of caution.)
Thank you so much for bringing this up, Rachel. I'm especially disappointed by how pictures have formed our view of the continent of Africa. Despite having spent just a tiny bit of time on the continent and having made a few local friends, I struggle a lot with my perception of this (vast, diverse, not-at-all-homogenous) continent. I so wish for my own mind and for everyone that pictures abounded of joy, economic growth, beautiful food, creativity, development, happy families, etc in Africa. The images we see absolutely label a country. In the case of Africa, for the worse. Which is a sad loss.
I appreciate your questions: What's the image for? And thank you for the links. I look forward to reading more. This is something we think about often. One thing we have experimented with is having a newsletter that is authentically a family update and about things we are learning and seeing in our host culture. It is only sent to people we have relationships with and who have a certain level of understanding about our context. We rarely share pictures of people and if we do it is almost always a picture that our friends have decided to take (a group shot, our kids and theirs, etc) and then shared with us. I ask if I can share it with friends and family. Our purpose is usually to show the beauty and hospitality we experience here. (Taking pictures without permission, let alone sharing them, is a fineable offense in our host country and it is a sensitive area in some people's belief systems - maybe this has helped shaped our level of caution.)
Thank you so much for bringing this up, Rachel. I'm especially disappointed by how pictures have formed our view of the continent of Africa. Despite having spent just a tiny bit of time on the continent and having made a few local friends, I struggle a lot with my perception of this (vast, diverse, not-at-all-homogenous) continent. I so wish for my own mind and for everyone that pictures abounded of joy, economic growth, beautiful food, creativity, development, happy families, etc in Africa. The images we see absolutely label a country. In the case of Africa, for the worse. Which is a sad loss.