There's a difference between what a picture *does* and what the photographer might *want* it to do. Unless an image like this is accompanied at all times by a caption that explains it, what it says visually is simply what it says. Frankly, if an image is powerful enough, what is says visually might overwhelm whatever a caption or description has to say about it.

So, you can *say* what you want about an image, but an image, all on its own, says something that is, perhaps, completely different from what it really was. Visual literacy is a different thing than verbal literacy.

In other words, it might very well be that this was an isolated moment that has nothing to do with what I thought (and wrote) about it when I saw it, but those facts do nothing to change what the photograph looks like.

The reason I posted a comment in the first place was that Gary's written commentary about the image seemed, to me at least, to be completely at odds with what the photograph *did* and *said* as a visual image. I wanted to make the point that one of the jobs that photographers have is to understand not only what images mean but also *how* they mean.

So , this little girl may, in fact, be perfectly innocent and be acting in a perfectly innocent way, but the PICTURE of the little girl says something completely different. Add in the fact that she's in an orphanage in Cambodia, that she probably has some understanding of and interaction with the wider world through fashion magazines, video, etc, and it doesn't seem that great a stretch to “read” the photograph in a way that is completely different from what the photographer intended.

One last point has to do with the process of editing and publishing. I don't know this, of course, but one might suppose that there may have been other photographs made of this same girl at the same time. Or, of other things seen at the orphanage. But, the photographer chose *this* image out of the group of images shot during that time period and, perhaps more importantly, chose to publish *this* image on his blog page (which I found via his post on Twitter). In other words, there are a series of actions involved in photography: Selecting a subject, framing the subject, choosing the moment (or perhaps a series or sequence of moments), editing the images shot down to the select “best” images and then, finally, finishing and presenting the work. A photographer needs to be responsible for all of those things.

-Jeff

Cheers!

I'd like it better if her eye contact was with you and your camera.

I see this as a sad picture.