Guttman - Children around the world: a photographic treasury of the next generation

Copyright 2015 by Peter Guttman

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Layout concept: Fabrizio LaRocca

Design and production: Nick Grant

Print ISBN: 978-1-63450-383-9

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63450-389-1

Proudly dedicated to Chase, a vivid inspiration whose intrepid ventures plus impressive creativity widened my sense of wonder, taught me all about the joys of fatherhood, and helped stoke burning, never-ending excitement for tomorrow.

INTRODUCTION

Wonder beams through joyful eyeballs. Their owners are invariably brand-new, diminutive members of yet another freshly minted human crop. This Lilliputian army of button-bursting exhilaration has been multiplying quickly and now occupies even the farthest reaches of our planet. They are disarmingly guileless and unashamed ambassadors of the colorful, distinguishing cultures they inhabit. The gaze they emit is an exquisitely crystal-clear window to the soul, projecting a trusting innocence, yet at the same time serving up the fiery seedlings of embryonic wisdom.

From the very outset, most children around the world appear to offer a startling resemblance in personalities. Though they might be wildly distant in geography, their untutored temperaments seem to weave together a borderless similarity. Despite that initial appearance of conformity, each developing identity is a divergent living, breathing genetic container of ancestral instincts and quirky characteristics. As they start to blossom into distinctive individuals, we see their lives slowly drifting down the strikingly different paths that geographical limitations, social circumstances, and serendipitous luck allow. In this poignant irony, its apparent that they are all growing up on the very same whirling planet that will eventually spin them toward dramatically different directions, perspectives, destinies, and environments.

Those wildly diverse stomping grounds host an indigenous franchise of open-air maternity wards and nursery schools, mom-helmed settlements peppering the globe and crawling with spirited tykes. During my encounters with them, in the course of four decades filled by dizzying exploration, Ive ventured across distant frontiers on all seven continents. Whether arriving in steamy jungle villages, remote and rugged fishing outports, alpine hamlets, or windblown desert oases, my first personal encounters tend to be with either shy, inquisitive youngsters hungry to satisfy their sprouting curiosity, or swarming hordes of boisterous, pre-testosterone ankle-biters eager to chaperone an attentive visitor. Their enthusiastic fascination and raw exuberance, unguarded even amongst obvious outsiders, reveal precious mortal attributes, ones that are perhaps the purest distillation of mankinds essence. Sadly though, like a huge block of ice on a summer day, that treasured spirit seems to slowly melt away, retreating from most of us as Father Times calendar pages are incessantly turned. We can, however, make determined strides not to ever let that happen.

Endeavoring to harness that same joie de vivre , my lifes journeys have propelled me through a kaleidoscopic carnival of global experiences where I painted with photographic light on a canvas of film. Ive aspired to capture the anthropological context lurking amidst many tribal playgrounds across a wide swath of earths newest human populations. By illuminating a colorful stage set diorama of children thriving in their own elements, both striking similarities and bewildering contrasts emerge that draw a compelling portrait of how humanitys shared bonds trump the shifting conflicts of an ever-changing reality. At the same time, Im fascinated by documenting a disappearing world where youthful sensibilities connect more authentically with their actual friends and playmates than with the technologically mesmerizing screens and devices that might someday overpower genuine interaction.

In the midst of slowly vanishing cultural diversity and fragile landscapes, these children helped me discover the common thread that seems to weave a hopeful tale of our existential condition. In fact, Ive received some of my most prized education observing young minds unschooled by cynicism. Their sheer joy of life, unstained by petty concerns and skepticism, is so instinctively obvious and vibrantly infectious. That contagion, if heartily adopted, can become a valuable template for a richer, more fulfilling adulthood. It occurred to me while wandering across the exotic, unfenced amusement parks of the planets juvenile populace that there is so much to learn by observing our earliest humanistic impulses.

Those lessons eventually boosted my confidence as I personally embarked on the most challenging, yet rewarding voyage of them all: an irreversible plunge into the hair-raising, pulse-quickening, heartwarming world of fatherhood. Invigorated by a lifetime of exposure to the spontaneity and uncanny creativity of kids inexplicably making magic out of less than comfortable habitats, the visceral power of their inventiveness and effervescence galvanized my own parental strategies. I ventured to create an environment for my own offspring that could promote that same bewitching alchemy, and perhaps in the process help rent at least a semblance of immortality.

Witnessing the majestic journey of growth in our own kids and their global brethren, were provided with powerful instruction that can help us all evolve. Indeed, child is father to the man. Those who empathetically harness the youthful vitality and passion of children, are spurred by their persistent inquisitiveness, sparked by their raw creativity, and inspired by their boundless imagination, can most capably build a superior, more compassionate, and effective world for the future. The sunny harbinger of a kinder, yet sharper, society might seem only barely visible on todays distant horizon. Ultimately, that kind of vivid promise will be left firmly in the energetic hands of children around the world, beckoning for tomorrow and to yet another generation of growing wonder.