Little Indians (photographing children by remembering your own childhood)

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It’s always a reflective experience when I am in the middle of somewhere and along my national geographic, discovery channel like travels… –basically, I just get lost- stumble on territory of a bunch of children.

I like to see them as little Indians, complete with tiny dresses made of animal-skin and matching feathered hats, for us outsiders they appear like outer-spaced hullabaloo, but it’s what they want you to see, those little Indians are more organized then you think. Within each little Indian’s tribe there is an underlying structure, some of them hunt (animals, plants, other Indians, outsiders), others discuss tactics and strategies against those hunted, or on important issues, such as the effects of magnifying glass on global warming, and older ones are assigned to keep an eye on the fields. But the one you should put in mind is their leader. He can mostly be located with a smaller group of other Indians walking after him and doing exactly what he does. If he picks up a rock, the other Indians will pick up rocks. If he puts something in his nose, they will put something in their noses. If he laughs devilish, they’ll laugh devilish.

 
When you find yourself in such situation, let me tell you that you have two options. Either, 1) you sneak you’re way back in the opposite direction before they spot you, or 2) and if they already did spot you with their wolf-like senses , put on a smile and hope you will not end up like the other victims tied on a tree or worse.

In the latter case, you have two sub-options, 2a) Run, is not really an option if you want to escape unharmed, plus it’s not really considered the “cool”, Spartan choice. Which leads us with your only choice 2b) befriend yourself with the leader, for the faith of your sorry life now depends solely on him and his judgment whether he likes you or not-like you. I hope that very moment is not when you remind yourself that you have forgotten to make a check on the offerings-in-case-of-Indians item on your things to pack list back home. Silver coins or colorful bonbons is a good start to tame the leader, by now the rest of the tribe might have gathered around, so make sure you have enough offering for each Indian in the tribe. If you have indeed no offering with you, well, entertain them, dance, do something stupid, and/or hurt yourself.

Once they have sensed that you mean no harm, you’re allowed to move, slowly. Let the leader show you around, ask him about his favorite horse. Gain his trust by keeping attention on what he is saying, little Indians know if you are not interested and they hate it. Now is the time when you can take out your big black light-capturing box, in other words camera from your big black light-capturing box bag, slowly, and while still keeping attention on the leader. Don’t act nervous or too excited, little Indians can sense nervousness, they will think you are up to something, and they hate it.

This is particularly important when they spot you holding your big black lighting-capturing box, the whole tribe will drop everything and gather around you, just to see you operate your magic device. Don’t sweat. Let the little Indians look through the viewfinder, show them their light drawings on the liquid-crystal display of your light box, soon they will lose interest and go back to what they were doing. At this time the little Indians know that a) you’re harmless, and b) your magic device is just a camera duh. Good for you! Now you can shoot the whole tribe in their natural environment, without being noticed by them. After you knocked yourself out with your shutter-button frenzy, show the tribe few frames (if they’re still interested in you), smile and say good-bye.

Leave the little Indians how you met them in their territory. Some will vaguely remember you as a giant with the magic device, but most probably in time they will forget you being once there.

When it comes to us, we might have gained more then just photographs. The footprints of each little Indian I meet linger in my heart, and remind me that I was one of them, for once I was a little Indian too.

(Me and my tent in the '80)

For my other photographs visit seian-j.deviantart.com