This picture from "American Beauty, " a series by Mary Ellen Mark, shows two young cousins in a small wading pool. "Mark saw the young rebel smoking a cigarette in the wading pool as her mother watched. The girl defiantly blew smoke into the camera as Mark captured the moment." Notice how much older the girl with the cigarette looks than her cousin. What do you think Mark's purpose was in capturing this image? What do you think it says about life in America? Does it make you feel anything specific?
photo from:http://www.pcnw.org/facultyPages/maryEllenMark/memark01-big.jpg
quote from:http://influx.uoregon.edu/2004/html/mem.html
11 comments:
This picture really caught my attention because the young girl smoking the cigarette does not look to be more than pre to early teen at most. When I saw this I was kind of in awe especially after reading the quote to go with it. She is smoking a cigarette as her mother watches and does not care. If you look closer she looks to be wearing eye make-up and possibly fake nails. I have noticed the younger generation are so eager to grow up these days. I know when I was younger I always wanted to be older. But today, young children have attitudes and this level of hatred towards their elders. I am unsure as to why this has happened. Possibly because as technology is getting more advanced it is forcing people to grow up faster. I am not quite sure.
I believe Mark was trying to portray how she feels about how fast children are growing up and how defiant they can be. The fact that the girl blow smoke while the picture is being taken is a prime example of this case. Also, this picture displayed with the quote might have something to say about the parents in America. Some parents just simply do not care what is best for their children. If a mother can sit there and watch her young daughter stand there and smoke a cigarette, there is obviously something not right with this family.
This picture makes me feel, I dont know if it is necessarily sad, but my feelings are not exactly positive regarding what the future will bring and what it will continue to do to the children in America.
This picture definitely caught my attention immediately. It is really strange to see such a young girls smoking in a published picture like this. The first emotion I felt when I saw this picture was confusion. Why so young? Why would someone want to take a picture like this? This picture is so haunting. In a sad way, I think it kind of pictures America’s now-generation teenagers perfectly. So many young people are being exposed to such grown-up things at such a young age, like, smoking, drugs, alcohol, and even the way older adults dress. This picture just shows how fast America’s bad ideals are catching up with us, and we do not even realize it. If this little girl can get a hold of a cigarette and smoke it right in front of her mother then something is wrong. It just goes to show how fast America is heading down the moral trench of no return.
Also notice this little girl in the background. Even though is sitting calmly in the background, I think she plays a very important role. She stands for another tragedy that is plaguing young Americans, obesity. Obesity is taking the country at alarming rates. Now, more kids than ever are becoming obese. The funny thing is that the numbers are only growing significantly, for the most part, in America. I think it is because of things like smoking, drinking, and doing drugs at such a young age is affecting the weight of our youth. I think this little, chubby girl is a representation of what the smoking girl could, and probably will end up like if she does not change her habits. I think overall this picture is showing the downfall of American youth.
After viewing the pictures on our blog webpage, this photograph grabbed my attention. I really liked the whole atmosphere of this photo. In the photo appears one girl who is smoking. The girl appears to be only ten, eleven, maybe twelve years old at the most. Also included in the photograph is another girl who appears to be of a younger age, and she is just sitting in the pool of water watching the rebel smoke. Furthermore, I think that the picture being in grey and white really contributes to the mood the photographer is trying to convey.
Shockingly, this picture reveals a realistic view of the many adult-like things young children engage themselves in. While growing up, I knew countless kids who were drinking and smoking at such young ages and even their parents knew about it. So the fact that the mother is watching this child smoke a cigarette is not that surprising. More importantly, I think that the message the photographer is trying to convey is the fact that many kids in America is are too grown for their age. For example, in the miss beauty pageants for young girls, the parents put make-up on these young girls faces in which it makes these babies look like grown women. All in all this picture makes me feel sad for the future generation of kids. Now days kids spend less time being a kid, and more time trying to be an adult. I feel sad for them because being a kid was a great experience for me.
This picture was the first to catch my eye as I was looking over the blogs. Obviously, I was very surprised that such a young girl was smoking a cigarette but to find out that the mother was watching her I just could not believe it. Any mother that allows their child to smoke at such a young age clearly has problems of their own, such as drugs or alcohol. Today’s youth is so delicate to their surroundings and environment, it seems like being a kid has a completely new meaning. I cannot help but feel sorry for the girl who has such an irresponsible, carefree mother. While growing up everyone knew the children in middle school who would smoke at the bus stop just because it made him or her look “cool”. In this situation, the girl in the picture is blowing smoke into the camera lens in her attempt to look grown up. This picture was taken in 1990 which is my (our) generation and it just goes to show the difference between the different areas of the US. If a child was smoking a cigarette at that age where I grew up I am positive that the community would have problems with the parent(s) in more way then one. I think that Mark was trying to show some of the issues with children wanting to grow up so quickly. Everything from the way children dress to their table manners has changed throughout generations. Many parents take these issues to heart and act accordingly, but then some will just submit to the defiant behavior, which will then lead to children like the girl in the picture. One thing can always lead to another, for example, today the young girl is smoking a cigarette and a couple years later, she has progressed into drugs before she is even a teenager. This picture makes me feel sick to think some of the things parents allow their children to do. I feel sorry for the young girl, despite what she may think, she is not old enough to make any type of decisions about smoking and the mother should definitely not encourage it by simply just watching. I can also sense the difference on how parents raise their children and how the generations to come need to pay attention to these type of issues.
This truly is a bizarre photo and makes me wonder what kind of world children today are growing up into. This picture captures that cigarettes really are a thing that make people look and feel older. The girl is trying to act older by wearing makeup and smoking. She is smoking in a way that is deliberately obvious. It is easy to tell that she wants people to know that she is smoking and that she has “grown up.” She is wearing a two piece bathing suit and holds her arms as a person that has smoked for 50 years would hold theirs. This girl wants people to know that she smokes.
Another shocking thing about his picture is the girl sitting in the water. Not only has this shot captured the shocking girl smoking, it has also captured another current problem among American children: obesity. She is symbolically sitting in the water and not moving. She is also wearing a shirt over her swimming suit, just as overweight kids do at the pool.
This photograph captures two problems for children today. Neither child looks happy and both represent a culture in America. It is shocking to hear that their mother was sitting outside the frame as this picture was taken. It obviously speaks for the kids’ futures if the mother does not discourage this kind of behavior. This shot is symbolic of the many troubles under-privileged children face today.
The photograph is really attention catching because of the adolescence of the child with the cigarette in her hand while exhaling smoke. It really portrays how young people are able to get a hold of anything they are not suppose to and things that are illegal and detrimental to soceity and more importantly, their health. It conflicts with how she is probably standing as a role model for her younger cousin who will most likely take after her actions. Why would this parent just stand and watch? It depicts that America has too many parents who could care less about their children and let their children become the people who none of us know we do not want to become. And it shows that some parents do not care about other children, so even the baby cousin's parents may not be aware of what is happening. This does not only apply to cigarettes, but young people still can obtain a gun, drugs, or alcohol, or just anything that can cause them to get into trouble. Cigarettes will eventually become unsatisying to this child and she will start doing other things to hurt her health and starting as a little girl makes her future even worse. It is not the girl's fault entirely, but the parent's for the most part because she probably supplies the cigarettes for her daughter and allows it of course. I believe this was what Mark was trying to capture and this makes me feel agressive toward uncaring and neglectful parents because I know from experience on how parents can change a life by their actions.
The photographer is capturing the extreme of what happens to children with absent minded parents. The child pictured smoking is clearly imitating people that she wants to be like. The whole ensemble from the make up, two piece swim suit, smoking and stance is not natural. It is learned. The child is making a statement, especially with the smoking she is saying she is just like those older than her and she is in charge of herself.
Sadness overwhelms me when I see this picture. I see a child desperate for attention. Her cousin appears slightly foreign to the scene. She is looking up to her and their is a sense of bewilderment and inadequacy in her eyes.
There is no reason to start smoking, especially at such a young age. The child is pursuing the image presented to her on T.V. and her surroundings.
It speaks of America's youth who are looking for love and proper role models in the home. If there are no role models in the home they will become what they see in the movies and T.V.
Immediately upon crossing this photo you’re likely to do a double-take to be sure of what you just saw. That was the entire point of this photo. It was meant to shock a viewer into acknowledgement that America’s children are on a slippery slope. You see the contrast between the girl with the cigarette and the girl wading in the water behind her. One looks as though she is trying to be in the spotlight while the other takes a more passive role but with a distinct look of confusion. The smoker looks as though she knows what she wants, even though it may be wrong to the common society, while the other is content where she sits, but she questions her actions as well as the smoking girl’s actions. The problem with the smoking girl lies not with herself and her actions, but more with her parents and the ever corroding society around her. She may not understand that smoking at her age is impermissible, but can we hold her responsible for the lack of knowledge? Not at all. In short, this photo is a shock to parents to get out there and make sure that their children are growing up with “proper” morals and an understanding of “right” and “wrong.” What these morals consist of is left up to you.
This picture is what the American advertising companys have asked for. They flood the market with commercials and billboards of things that kids should not see. Kids these days are growing up to fast. Kids see advertising for a number of grown up things. Kids see grown ups doing grown up things and there minds are brain washed. It amazes me that the mother was watching as this picture was taken. It just seems to me that kids are growing up a much higher pace than they should be. This is picture is good at showing that.
So many of you felt compelled to respond to this photograph—for good reason. I agree with a lot of what has been said here, but I also want to summarize some of the points and ask for responses from some of you who have not chimed in. Daniel suggests “America’s children are on a slippery slope,” which is pretty much the gist of what everyone seems to be saying here. You guys suggest that, for different reasons, children today are growing up too fast and are being exposed to adult material/influences that are inappropriate to their impressionable minds and bodies.
One of the comments that I definitely agree with here is Amber’s: “Now days kids spend less time being a kid, and more time trying to be an adult. I feel sad for them because being a kid was a great experience for me.” When I was young (a long, long time ago), we played outside all afternoon—freeze tag, dodge ball—we weren’t smoking and drinking and having sex at the age of nine (yes, kids are having sex today at the age of nine or earlier). I played Barbies in the sixth grade. Girls are performing oral sex at rainbow parties or lipstick parties or whatever at that age today. I do think these children are in a crisis.
Several of you felt like the parents are directly responsible—not only for this one little girl, but also for this misguided generation as a whole. What should the parents do? Are there other parties to blame? Linzey said that “young children have attitudes and this level of hatred towards their elders.” Do you think this is because parents fail to fulfill the role of guide and protector—or is there a lack of respect in America’s youth that can be blamed elsewhere?
I liked Daniel’s comment about the other little girl sitting down in the pool (several of you noted her obesity)—that she appeared to have a “distinct look of confusion.” Is this also representative of the generation? Are the children of today simply lost?
This picture really caught me off guard. It is very odd to see someone so young carelessly and casually puffing on a cigarette. The girl smoking looks significantly older than the other girl. She looks like she may have on eyeliner and mascara as well as other cosmetic features. It is actually a very sad picture because it portrays today's teenage generation very accurately. People (girls especially) are growing up so fast now and getting involved in things that are so innapropriate for their age group and maybe anyone at all. So much is said in this picture. Not only is it displaying the lack of innocence that is occurring in the younger generation, it also shows the naive nature of some children when looking at the other girl. She has a confused and dazed look on her face as if she does not understand what the other girl is doing.
I believe the photographer was attempting to display this accurate depiction. Mark was trying to show how speedily children are growing up and how rebellious they can be. The girl is basically blowing smoke into the camera showing this defiance. I look at this picture and feel disappointment. Disappointment in the rebellion of the generation but also disappointment in the generation that could stop this defiance.
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