The face reveals all
June 18th, 2009
My brother-in-law, Jim Spillane, is a professional photographer. He’s currently in Nepal, where he’s photographing people going about their day-to-day lives.
Today, he sent an email about his motives for photographing local brick workers:
“It’s the expression on their face(s). They don’t hide their feelings. If they’re sad, they show it; happy, you know it. Unlike the business class I had left in Kathmandu with their masqueraded friendliness, they are not trying to sell you something. The difference is so stark you notice it immediately.”
This got me to thinking about why I was uncomfortable when I first started in business and what still makes me itch when I see it today: People putting on a mask and playing a role. In a world of greater transparency, I hope that business people can learn to become more humane and less deceptive – that feelings can be expressed and respected.
Call me a dreamer, but I’m seeing the best companies on the planet being founded on the premise of helping people – both employees and customers – get better. It’s a fairly clear corporate choice: be a genuine company with a conscience, or a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Keep keepin’ it real Bob. As Tom Waits said “good karma takes a lot longer to come around, but it does…”.
I have always believed in that premise but I left a company of over 30 years were this evidently was no longer the case. You had managers that look you in the eye and tell you what a great job you are doing and then tell another employee the complete opposite. These people were the ones who had no concept of the kind of work we did yet they were in the position of authority and have never been exposed to the blue collar facet of our industry. Needless to say, Bob, you just happened to pick out a subject I am all to familiar with.
Thanks, Paul. You bring up some other disturbing aspects of bad companies: the two-faced manager and the clueless management. You could probably write a “War and Peace” sized tome on the subject of disconnect between front-line workers and upper management.
I own six photographs by Jim Spillane, all close-up portraits, and these people look into my eyes every day and I into theirs. They are from Mali, Tibet, Ethiopia, Nepal, Niger, and Ladakh, four women and two men. As compositions they are visually beautiful – the colors especially. But what inspires me about them is the tenderness of their expressions and the artist’s heart that connected with them and captured that look. That connection – which connects with me too – is the perfect circle of art. It is the mirror the artist holds up to us in which we can, for a timeless moment, glimpse the great soul that unites us all.
Thanks for the comment, Mary. Beautifully articulated. You’ve captured the essence of what makes me love art — and humanity.
Bob, it was good to see you noticed the heart of what I´m going thru when photoing. in ecuador trying to do the same as in the brick factories. but sprained my two wrists in a fall, so notice suffering while having to wait for time to recover. saw what i am trying to say. staying with a farm family way out in the hills. the mother was breastfeeding her 1-yr-old daughter on a little bench in the dark kitchen. to her right was her 4-yr-old son playing with his 7-yr-old sister. next to them was the 15-yr-old son laying down with his legs behind all of them, rubbing his billy. it was just family affection but it spoke of the possibility of us all getting along together. it was lite only by the fire on the dirt floor. now that i´ve seen it, i know what i´ve been trying to say.
happy new year to you and peggy.
plan trip into yasuni nat. park to photo waorani with reuters photograper and friend, guillermo, in a few weeks. oil cos. are distroying their way of life.