Has anyone ever photographed "Dignity"?

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Great pictures all.

Unfortunately Dignity is an emotion that leaves no images behind. Just feelings.

Dignity is unnerved, like courage and devotion.

Animal instinct at is best.

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Old couple, selling sanitary ware in a 10sqm shop in Shanghai:

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Collecting empty bottles, to make a living in Shanghai:

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Amazing photographic interpretations of dignity within others. Thank you all for posting these.

Tell Tale Signs, Disc One, has a version of the Bob Dylan version of "Dignity" that I was originally thinking of when I started this thread.

Looking at a glass that's half-filled/ Looking at a dream that's just been killed…

Lyrics that summed up the previous year and a half after having lost my job and sold everything.

Little did I know that in a matter of days, the loss of dignity, a temporary state, and our lives would change forever when my wife suffered a heart attack and days later, a stroke. Followed by multiple problems with cardiac arrests, congestive heart failure, and a new job for me...a full-time caregiver.

It has now been over 3 years since I last had a job. But that really doesn't mean anything anymore. Yes, I still feel the loneliness and pain of being left behind every morning as I hear neighbors leaving for work but then I look beside me and see my bride sleeping peacefully in the shadows as the sun rises yet again with the promise of a new day and I know I have everything I need.

So, what about dignity? Is it an emotion? Is it a quest for a certain state of being? Is it something that can actually be lost and if so, can it be regained? Can it really be photographed? It is clear to me now more than ever before...

I have no idea.
 
Dave, I had no idea about all of this! I am at a loss of words actually.
I have seen people suffer and never have experienced with my own skin something, I didn't see happen to anybody else at a worse.

I wish you good and that moments of doubt will be washed away by happiness.

Dignity can't be lost, and photographing it is not an easy thing for sure.
 
I don't have a photograph of it, unfortunately-----one of those lost opportunities you always regret---but, I once saw an elderly, and apparently homeless gentleman in Japan, picking through a trash can with chop sticks.

Quite an image!


Texsport
 
Dignity Revived

Dignity Revived

Yes, it is time to revive this thread after almost 3 years, then a second, catastrophic stroke and two surgeries. Since then, 8 months in hospitals and in-residence rehabilitation centers. I cannot tell you how many people we have seen in the halls, in the lunch room, in physical therapy rooms with amputated feet, legs, arms and hands; with pumps hanging from their shoulders to replace their hearts; with crouched-over permanent postures struggling with pain, dementia and countless other illnesses; and yes, stroke victims. It was not possible, nor my desire, to photograph these people but to just get to know them. Photographs would have done nothing for their dignity or my perception of who they really are. Only getting to know them and showing them respect and kindness, sometimes with just a smile and a "good morning". Sometimes just bringing them some Starbucks coffee as a surprise. Other times, dropping Krispy Kreme doughnuts off for them to enjoy. And we made some mighty good friends...

It can be said that "dignity" has never been photographed. I think that is probably correct. The images posted upthread come close to photographing what we, the viewers, read into them in regard to what we perceive as "dignity".

But it is deeper than that, IMHO... And much broader as in the lyrics below.

Lyrics from Bob Dylan:

Fat man lookin' in a blade of steel
Thin man lookin' at his last meal
Hollow man lookin' in a cottonfield
For dignity

Wise man lookin' in a blade of grass
Young man lookin' in the shadows that pass
Poor man lookin' through painted glass
For dignity

Somebody got murdered on New Year's Eve
Somebody said dignity was the first to leave
I went into the city, went into the town
Went into the land of the midnight sun

Searchin' high, searchin' low
Searchin' everywhere I know
Askin' the cops wherever I go
Have you seen dignity?

Blind man breakin' out of a trance
Puts both his hands in the pockets of chance
Hopin' to find one circumstance
Of dignity

I went to the wedding of Mary-lou
She said I don't want nobody see me talkin' to you
Said she could get killed if she told me what she knew
About dignity

I went down where the vultures feed
I would've got deeper, but there wasn't any need
Heard the tongues of angels and the tongues of men
Wasn't any difference to me

Chilly wind sharp as a razor blade
House on fire, debts unpaid
Gonna stand at the window, gonna ask the maid
Have you seen dignity?

Drinkin' man listens to the voice he hears
In a crowded room full of covered up mirrors
Lookin' into the lost forgotten years
For dignity

Met Prince Phillip at the home of the blues
Said he'd give me information if his name wasn't used
He wanted money up front, said he was abused
By dignity

Footprints runnin' cross the silver sand
Steps goin' down into tattoo land
I met the sons of darkness and the sons of light
In the bordertowns of despair

Got no place to fade, got no coat
I'm on the rollin' river in a jerkin' boat
Tryin' to read a note somebody wrote
About dignity

Sick man lookin' for the doctor's cure
Lookin' at his hands for the lines that were
And into every masterpiece of literature
for dignity

Englishman stranded in the blackheart wind
Combin' his hair back, his future looks thin
Bites the bullet and he looks within
For dignity

Someone showed me a picture and I just laughed
Dignity never been photographed
I went into the red, went into the black
Into the valley of dry bone dreams

So many roads, so much at stake
So many dead ends, I'm at the edge of the lake
Sometimes I wonder what it's gonna take
To find dignity

Can YOU post more images of what you think defines "dignity"?:angel: I would like to see how much "dignity" you can capture and present, not with just an image, but with dialogue as well. Thank you all in advance.
 
dave lackey said:
Yes, it is time to revive this thread after almost 3 years, then a second, catastrophic stroke and two surgeries. Since then, 8 months in hospitals and in-residence rehabilitation centers. I cannot tell you how many people we have seen in the halls, in the lunch room, in physical therapy rooms with amputated feet, legs, arms and hands; with pumps hanging from their shoulders to replace their hearts; with crouched-over permanent postures struggling with pain, dementia and countless other illnesses; and yes, stroke victims. It was not possible, nor my desire, to photograph these people but to just get to know them. Photographs would have done nothing for their dignity or my perception of who they really are. Only getting to know them and showing them respect and kindness, sometimes with just a smile and a "good morning". Sometimes just bringing them some Starbucks coffee as a surprise. Other times, dropping Krispy Kreme doughnuts off for them to enjoy. And we made some mighty good friends...

It can be said that "dignity" has never been photographed. I think that is probably correct. The images posted upthread come close to photographing what we, the viewers, read into them in regard to what we perceive as "dignity".
Click to expand...

I agree with your closing sentence -- that "dignity" is more about the
viewer's inferences from the image, than the image in itself. But then
I believe that is true of all qualities commonly ascribed to photographs.
I wrote and photographed a whole book about that. :)

But I'm not sure I'm with you when you say that "photographs would
have done nothing for their dignity or my perception of who they really
are." Photography's purpose, if it has a purpose, is interpretive -- it
gives the photographer a medium of expression, and the viewer an
artifact to consider. The photograph will tell you nothing about who
your subject really is, but it might reflect for us your understanding
or presumption of who you think your subject really is.

Your Krispy Kreme kindnesses are endearing.

How are you?


Before the airport. by sandersnyc, on Flickr
 
Sanders McNew said:
I agree with your closing sentence -- that "dignity" is more about the
viewer's inferences from the image, than the image in itself. But then
I believe that is true of all qualities commonly ascribed to photographs.
I wrote and photographed a whole book about that. :)

But I'm not sure I'm with you when you say that "photographs would
have done nothing for their dignity or my perception of who they really
are." Photography's purpose, if it has a purpose, is interpretive -- it
gives the photographer a medium of expression, and the viewer an
artifact to consider. The photograph will tell you nothing about who
your subject really is, but it might reflect for us your understanding
or presumption of who you think your subject really is.

Your Krispy Kreme kindnesses are endearing.

How are you?


Before the airport. by sandersnyc, on Flickr
Click to expand...

Hi, Sanders...

We are okay, how are you?:)

Great photos!.. as always, and I agree completely with you...what I meant to convey was that I could only get to know these people one-on-one with some dialogue and only then could I know how to respond to being a positive influence on their lives. I just could not take a photo even though I had my camera in my bag every minute for months.

From my point of view, I cannot know the real story behind the photograph and that is why I feel that "dignity" is something within and more than just an interpretation of the viewer. But as a viewer, we are left with photographs and some photographs come closer than others.

For me, I was more interested in the "person" and what he/she was experience... and helping that person(s) through the day with something that would brighten their day just a bit. I got to know quite a few of them yet, others, well, I didn't know what to do as they would appear unresponsive because of pain, depression, dementia, or any number of things...so, taking a photograph would have been a selfish thing on my part, leaving those poor souls no better off after having walked away with an image of their suffering. Hence, a smile, a handshake, opening doors, Krispy Kremes, anything I could do...

In all my years, I have never experienced (as opposed to seeing) such a side of life and misery even though my step mother and my mother-in-law suffered strokes decades ago. Back then, I was removed somewhat by distance and circumstances, as well as young age and lack of full understanding. This time around, I was completely a part of similar circumstances and the interaction with those people in rehab was an epiphany, it really was. Now, what am I to do with what I learned? That is what I am left with.

That is also why I appreciate your photos and all of those posted so far, and, I hope more to be posted as we try to convey the concept of "dignity".

Thanks, my friend.:)
 
Perhaps, I should not keep delaying and move ahead with a short documentary on "dignity".:angel:

A short documentary as opposed to a photo essay...
 
taskoni said:
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Scan from wet print 30x40

Regards,

Boris
Click to expand...

Ah...yes, yet again a great image, Bobby! One that makes me want to know more about this person especially her underlying character and experiences that manifest themselves in this image that projects the term "dignity".:)
 
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