Mimi Chakarova

Mimi Chakarova is a documentary photographer who was born in Bulgaria which then she migrated to Baltimore as a teenager with her family in 1989. She felt alone and out of place which then she was desperate to find a niche. She saved up some money which then she purchased a camera and found a love of capturing photographs.

This is a photograph of a guard in Kashmir with children all looking at him. This image appears to have a meaning behind it, it could represent how in Kashmir their is so much violence that the children all look up to the gun in disappointment as if its a normal object to them. The children's facial expressions play a big role in this photograph as it sets a kind of dull depressing mood. A journalist quoted  "I was in a bus when I saw a man shot dead on the road. People passed by. Further down the road, I saw a dog that had been run over by a car. There was a group of dogs gathered around his corpse, mourning his death. What does this say about us?" this means that in Kashmir people killing each other is a normal thing and there is no love or care at all for each other where as the dogs still care and love each other even though they are lower than the people. The children appear to be standing away from the guard which could indicate that they don't want to get involved with the situation and are disgusted by the way they kill other people like it is an every day occurrence.

My first initial thoughts towards this photograph were that it looked gloomy, serious and had a kind of negative feel to it. The use of the grey brings your attention to the subjects of the image and not so much on the colours used. I think the photographer was aiming to make the audience look at the image from a child perspective as it is on the same level as the children but you can only see the waist of the guard. The image also looks quite old like it was captured with an old film camera, this adds a interesting effect as you can tell the background is in a third world country.

I admire this type of photography and like the way the image is simple but has such a deep meaning behind it. The colours used a basic and bland but I think the colours used play a big part in setting the mood. I like the way she has captured the guards waist with the gun as the subject and has slightly blurred the children in the background. I admire this technique and I am considering using it myself for my own photography work.