I’ve been thinking about group photographs.
Not the posed kind exactly, but the social kind. The kind where everyone is told, “Come in, you’re part of this.”
At first, everyone believes it. People gather. They stand where they are told. They make room for one another. The photographer steps back and says, “A little more to the left. You, move farther back. You, just stand at the edge. Don’t worry, you’re still in it.”
And technically, that may be true.
You are still in the picture.
But when the photograph comes out, some people are centered. Some are visible enough to matter. Others are present only as fragments: half a shoulder, part of a face, a shadow at the edge.
No one had to say, “You don’t belong.”
The frame did the work.
That may be one way exclusion happens. Not always by direct removal, but by adjustment. By narrowing the frame. By moving some people farther and farther from consequence while still claiming they were included.
So maybe the question is not only, “Am I allowed to stand here?”
Maybe the better question is:
Does my presence still change the picture?
WE&P by: EZorrillaMc&Co.
Travel in Life 