When the photographer is photographed
This is a picture of a girl taking a picture of me in the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron. I had it coming for me since I document most things I see at the West Bank, and I admit that I sneak-shot quite a few pictures of this charming girl inside the beautiful mosque, where Abraham is believed to be buried. The phone she uses as a camera is by the way the exact same phone I use for work back home. Isn’t that something! For me this photo says at least one thing about the world and one thing about the West Bank.
About the world: Cell phones have become something almost everybody owns, and since many of them include cameras, very many that wouldn’t necessarily buy, or couldn’t afford a camera, now has one. One consequence for me is that I (as a privileged, relatively rich, Norwegian boy with a camera) am no longer only the photographer, but also the photographed. What does that tell me? I am not quite sure, but maybe that I am equally “exotic” to them as they are to me, and now we have the same possibility of capturing our “exoticness” on film.
About the West Bank: For those of you who have been in the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron you know that there are quite a few Israeli soldiers you have to pass through to be able to enter the mosque. This time was no exception. The West Bank is just full of soldiers interfering with most aspects of life. I have never before been exposed to so much military presence. And even in this rather funny situation where a little girl is taking a picture of a foreigner with her camera in a mosque, there is a soldier supervising the process. His big gun in his right arm is not covering up his very curious expression on his face. I wonder what he thinks about the photo she takes of me.
3 comments on “When the photographer is photographed”
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For et bilde!!
Very nice picture indeed! Greetings from Cape Town.
I love this shot! Alf M