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Iconic Images and suffering

A friend called me late last night to share what she had done on impulse- sent an email to The Backpacker & Co., for a collaboration on a Travel+Architecture venture. Her call lasted for 30 minutes and each minute filled with genuine hope that she gets to be a part of the Backpacker team. Her post-college architecture life, she said, was disappointing and it made her not the person she has been or wanted to be. She was talking about how she has suffered for such a long time and now wanted this to be a new start to her life.
I listened to her, calming her and assuring with words that if this is what she wants to do, it is what will come to her!
Even while talking to her and now, almost 12 hours later, I realize how much encouraging words mean for a person in times of distress.

Today morning, while going through some articles on a website, I came across this:
http://justsomething.co/the-32-most-powerful-images-ever-taken/

Each picture here, reminds me that Human life is fickle and however much we try to live it up in luxury or comfort, we must become one with the despair and drear it presents.

This haunting and heart-wrenching image is proof of our failure to provide for everyone in our world. Children are affected the worst. I remember an image clicked by Kevin Carter titled 'Vulture stalking a child', and when I read that he committed suicide three months later after feeling guilty for not helping the child, I was greatly perturbed. I was Nine years old when I first saw this image and the helplessness I felt has no words for describing what my young mind witnessed then.


Food Theft- clicked by Tom Stoddart. Sudan. 1998

We live a life of such luxuries and comfort that our children don't know of those who struggle daily for food/love/security in life. They have no inkling of the poor social conditions inflicted on people all over the world. And, these pictures merely show us a sliver of life. Perhaps, we will never go to Ethiopia or Sudan or Vietnam to witness this extreme dehumanization. But will we know of this suffering?



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