An interesting article about the way the news and photographic images are shown in western countries

I have read and done a resume about what I have considered interesting from the following web page:
http://www.today.ucla.edu/people/070719_majority-world_voice/

Majority world finds its voice in photos
By Ajay Singh

According to one recent study, Alam said, more than 90% of the photographic images about the majority world are taken by non-indigenous photographers, including those working for development organizations and charities raising money from the Western public. Far too many of these images tend to either romanticize the non-Western world or depict it as a hopelessly poor and violent region, said Alam.

Western images either romantic or hopelessly poor.

It's no secret that most humans live in the "majority world," a relatively recent term that refers to the developing world. Acclaimed photographer Shahidul Alam has long been concerned that most photographic images of this vast region are taken not by locals but by Western photographers.

A noted human rights activist, Alam is the first Asian to win the prestigious Mother Jones Award, famously given to individuals who "fight like hell for the living." His photographs have been exhibited in some of the world's leading venues, including New York's Museum of Modern Art.

"I have no problem with white, Western photographers working in my country, but it is their exclusivity that worries me," said Alam, who is a major figure in Bangladesh's public, intellectual and cultural life. He added: "I want people to look at the things I look at."

Alam, who has the distinction of first introducing e-mail to Bangladesh, has worked tirelessly to present local realities in the media. In 1989, he launched Drik, a photo agency in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, devoted to showcasing the works of what he calls "invisible photographers ignored by the mainstream world but who can often sense important stories before they are broken by the mainstream media."

Alam's agency, which has a host of major international clients, including United Nations organizations, regularly organizes mobile photo exhibitions in public on such themes as social exclusion, inequality and people's movements. Among Alam's latest initiatives is a Website, majorityworld.com, that champions the cause of indigenous photographers from the majority world.



You can also read more interesting articles at Shahidul Wordpress at: (this link brings you to one of the latest news, that I have also found thrilling and interesting)
http://shahidul.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/dancing-amidst-the-baobabs/