I Just Might Be Famous

After visiting the Tribal Museum in Koraput last week, I was approached by two men with video cameras. They were from a local news station and wanted to ask me about my experience of the museum. Normally, I would turn down such a request as impromptu interviews are not a part of my skill set. However, I got the distinct sense that they wouldn’t really take “no” for an answer.

I can only hope that my fumbling, wandering , incoherent responses have not been broadcast all over Koraput. Just as I can only hope that the snapshots that people take of me (either by request after a brief interaction or surreptitiously by passersby on their cell phones) have not found themselves all over the Internet.

I understand why I get so much attention in Orissa. I look different. I’m an oddity. There’s something very normal and usual about wanting to take photos of the abnormal and unusual. To be honest, it’s actually not very different from how I take pictures. I rarely click photos of streets in Orissa that look like the ones I see in the U.S. My lens is drawn to that which is different or surprising.

And this is part of the reason why I am nervous about photography and film as mediums. Perhaps my image is now being used as proof that Orissa does attract foreign tourists, which I suppose wouldn’t be a terrible thing even though it’s not particularly true. More troubling for me is that the pictures I take may be understood by others as a generalization of what India is like. This would also be misleading as my job here for the summer is to document the schools and health facilities that are struggling the most – the things that are in some ways atypical.

So what do I do? For now the best compromise I can come up with is to only post photos of the cute and the beautiful. For other pictures, you’ll have to come and visit me so I can give you the entire context behind each image. As for addressing my new found fame, the best course of action for now seems to be to double check before going out that there isn’t food wedged between my teeth or toilet paper stuck to my shoe.