City - Lancaster County State - PENNSYLVANIA Country - United States
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Old Order Amish kids go to one-roomed schools, where there are no cafeterias of course. They take large lunches in those coolboxes! During my brief acquaintence, Amish kids seem invariably happy and have, umm...how can I put this...European manners. Big crop, for reasons I shall enlarge upon in due course...
I am back home and can now explain, as follows:
The Amish society has a BIG problem with images of any kind (they do not own cameras of course, and do not hang any kind of picture in their dwellings, except for calendars). I therefore had two choices: to ignore them completely in terms of pics, or to rationalise it according to my own morality. I still feel rather uncomfortable that I chose the latter course. I am told that children do not mind as much as adults, and that the Amish are philosophical about the vulgarities of tourists poking cameras at them. Still, I'd rather inflict benign photography on them than exploit their culture in the obnoxiously UGLY way that characterises the tourist industry in Lancaster County.
Kathy and Ina: TY and yah, where I am at the moment is at once beautiful and ugly - a cruel paradox to my sensibilities at least. Usually never more than a mile away from what one might describe as pastoral, simplicity, lies commercialism writ large. I get the feeling the Amisg community here is being squeezed into an ever-narropw corner - and the Amish out of modern necessity are apparently complicit...BUT, I'm, just an uninformed observer - a tourist.
These kids certainly do look happy Anthony! Maybe, umm...kids don't have to have all the "stuff" to be happy? Something to think about! Great series! Kathy
Beautiful image, and so cute kids, Anthony! I saw all your new pictures, they're great! Lovely place & people! I'll be off till Saturday, no more comments from me... however tempting it might be! Great capture, congrats! Ina
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