The Confident Gaze - summary

Skekhar Deshpande is largely discrediting the magazine National Geographic (N.G.) in her artical "The Confident Gaze," talking how the N.G. photographers mistifys the lenses for the sake of the "western eye." In other words, the photographers set up an image, "...attempt[ing] to sanitize and universalize the uncomfortable as well as different elements of other cultures" (par. 7). Deshpande here explains how N.G. sets out to clean an image up, so it appears to be a beautiful photograph, but is ignoring the real problems the country is facing. "This power to transform the most repulsive results of human actions around the world into images that are digestable is what makes for the culture of Nation Geographic" (par. 11). N.G. allows people (specifically middle class parents in this article) to feel informed about things, and an illusion of grandeur is really created. Deshpande goes on to explain how N.G. isn't actually a genuine educational source, but a photographic magazine. Images in issues are irrelevant to the true context of their article. Deshpande then talks of the reason she is writing the article, India's 50th anniversary of independence. What N.G. is really celebrating though, is India's 50 years of democracy and technological progress: following the western way. "One feels great for having encountered one's faint and fuzzy prejudices in palatable language and one feels good because we know that the country has done a lot of catching up in 50 years, but it has a lot of catching up to do if 'catching up' has to mean something" (par. 19). Deshpande here explains how the article causes misconception of India's placement right now. They may have come a long way in fifty years, but they still have a lot of work to be done.