Compare And Contrast Sharbat Gula

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The text I selected is Sharbat Gula by Steve McCurry. I responded to number 1 of the "Seeing" prompts on page 258. This text particularly stood out to be because of Gula’s distinctive, green eyes and intense stare. When comparing both pictures from side to side, you can infer that the person depicted in the earlier photograph is a younger version of the one portrayed in the 2002 photograph. For instance, both photographs depict a woman with green eyes, an intense gaze, headscarf, and other distinctive traits that discern her as the same person. In the younger version of Gula, we see a girl with large, green eyes wearing a red headscarf. Her gaze is extremely intense, as if it were the focal point of the photograph. Furthermore, in the older version of Gula, we see a woman …show more content…

When comparing the pictures, we can easily detect many differences in their eye shape, nose shape, and lip size. However, such slight differences do not necessarily indicate that they are different people. Considering that the photographs are taken 17 years apart, the minor differences in facial features can indicate a sign of maturity instead. Therefore, unlike in the first photograph, where her facial features appear more neotenous, the new photograph depicts the same person with more developed facial features and a different bone structure. Overall, the photographer frames and presents the person in such a way so that her intense gaze serves as the focal point of the picture. In other words, the photographer reveals many political intentions just through capturing and framing her bright eye color and gaze. Her eyes radiate such penetrating intensity; it is not just any intensity, but a multitude of mixed emotions, like fear, sadness, and even honesty. The emotions that she radiates symbolizes the fear and hopelessness that embodies people in a war stricken

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