INNOCENTS ABROAD

The photographs [in National Geographic magazine] have exercised a conservative force within the culture. They have rarely cried out for change, raised painful, unresolvable questions, embarrassed, or caused discomfort. In general, they have existed as a beautiful, somewhat compelling body of evidence that the third world is a safe place, that it is made up of people basically like us, that the people who are hungry and oppressed have meaningful lives, and that the conflicts and flareups we hear of in the news occur in a broader context of enduring values and everyday activities. These images obscure the American relationships with the third world that have structured life there in profound ways; they deny real social connections even as they evoke empathy. One can imagine these photographs doing otherwise, however. . . . They might question the power we have had to control the lives of others and to leave our own unexamined.

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