Story: Be Generous with Instant Pictures in Undeveloped Countries: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

I have so many pictures and they are such treasures to me. I have photos of family ancestor portraits that date back as far as 1754. I have photographs of my father as a boy in Alaska in 1915. I have pictures of my parents in their courting days and in the years of the Depression and pictures sent to each other during WWII. Of course, I have thousands of photographs of my own children and grandchildren, and I search the images for ways to touch the ways we once were. I always said that if my house were burning, first, I would try to save photographs. My house did burn, and one of the most profound losses was images of my babies. So I can not imagine not having photographs to span the years, even the centuries, and to juxtapose with my life now. Because of this, when I knew I would be going to some very poor areas of Kenya and Ethiopia, I decided to take a Polaroid camera so that I could give to others who may not have a single image of their child or grandmother.

It was a good idea, and I recommend it to all who yearn to find a way in the midst of such deprivation to give a treasure to those you meet along the way. It does not have to be a Polaroid. You could take a portable battery operated printer. You just are trying to find a way to GIVE a picture of the others you find so picture worthy, instead of justTAKING a picture. What I would do then is ask if the person minded if I also took a picture on my own camera. Now, yes, it was awkward trying to juggle two cameras, especially for a klutz like me, but it was well worth it. What works even better is if there are two of you, then one can take the Polaroids while the other has the time to set up and get an even better picture of a less posed subject. If I were to return and had more time in one place, I would take a digital picture frame or some other technology this grandmother does not know the name of. Then I could show my subjects a larger and more leisurely view of themselves and their friends than is possible in the LCD of your camera. Most people were happy to let me take a picture of them as long as I showed them the LCD display, which was certainly only fair, but it was also very frustrating because it killed time and spontaneity. Just a caveat, be very careful when you purchase Polaroid film not to buy any past its expiration date. The battery that powers the process is in the film , and that's why the film is so expensive. I did buy mine on Ebay and got ten rolls for about $8 a roll instead of $12 or so, so check around for a good deal.

And even for those who are, uh, 'Bad,' and who do not have a generous bone in your body—surely none on this forum-- you can use the offer of an instant picture to keep to approach locals, and hopefully the local will still get their picture. If you approach them that way and keep the picture, then you earn a place in the 'Ugly' category.

One mistake I made was not to provide a zip lock bag for the pictures I gave away. If you have ever been in one of the simplest of homes in this world, there are no drawers or shelves or places where anything paper is protected. Perhaps a zip lock and a push pin would enable your new friend's image to be hung on a wall or a supporting post. If I were visiting a particular family, then I would take a small photo album for them to keep their treasured images safe. A lot of times we have perfectly good intentions of mailing copies back to this far away place, but I suspect that often does not happen.

Most of the pictures here were at a Roadside market and hotel (tiny, tiny) along the mountain road to Kabernet in Kenya. We just stopped and offered them the pictures. They were fascinated and enthralled and began to shyly emerge from corners and doorways as word was whispered in Swahili from one to the other. There are a few pictures from the streets of Nakuru, a town in Kenya near the lake famous for its 10,000 or so flamingos. We stopped in town because my daughter's memory card was full. She found an Internet cafe' that did not know how to copy her memory card, but because we had brought our own blank CD'S, they allowed her to copy the card. I didn't want to waste the time on such mundane matters, I was in AFRICA, for goodness sake, so I bravely got out of the car and approached people for pictures. I was looking for children, but the mothers and kids were few and far between, and those few scurried off as they viewed me rather suspiciously. Some people you meet just have an instant effect on you, and it was that way for me for the boy in Nakuru whose lot in life was to spend every day on the street corner begging because he was crippled. In his Polaroid, I was careful not to show the crutches. Mostly I was surrounded by the men in town, and one man knew English and helped me out. One man begged me to sell him the camera, but I tried to explain to him that the film was very expensive and would probably be hard for him to obtain. There was a dignified gentleman who said his grandchildren did not have a single picture of him. Every child should have a picture of his grandfather and I was privileged to provide that for his family.

As we were leaving the famous lake, our van was stopped for a parade of youth musicians, a treat in itself. The neighborhood kids thronged to our car windows, and we struggled to take Polaroids of as many of them as possible, handing pictures out to their hands stretching as hard as they could to our car windows. That got very confusing fast as I realized I was taking pictures of a group of friends, so then who would get the picture? It works much better in a calmer setting with fewer people, so you could focus on family groups and not be so rushed.

One of the things I wanted to try, but my adult daughter thought I was stark, raving mad, was to go to a local hospital and take pictures of patients and of family menbers to help them bridge the times when they had to be apart, possibly forever.

A little added note is to suggest that you bring a small album of pictures of your own family. I found the people we met were very intrigued by our homes and life, and showing our own lives felt respectful and more like sharing as peers than as one person studying the other in a one-sided way. I would avoid ostentatious elements of your life and stick to the simple though.

Always when I would try to be packed more lightly for the day and not have the camera, I would regret it mightily as I would be so charmed by a person and want so much to give them a photograph to keep. If you travel to undeveloped countries, please consider this way of including your subjects in your pointing and shooting. We yearn for pictures because of the ways they are different from us, but they yearn for pictures because of the ways they are the same as we are. Every child should have a picture of his grandfather.