{"id":1941,"date":"2009-11-08T00:17:30","date_gmt":"2009-11-08T00:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/?p=1941"},"modified":"2009-11-08T00:17:30","modified_gmt":"2009-11-08T00:17:30","slug":"portraits-of-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.foto8.com\/live\/portraits-of-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Portraits of Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"review_photo\" style=\"float: left;\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.foto8.com\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/giroudin_portraits__acy002_280.jpg?w=1200&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\u00a9Baptiste Giroudon\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/>I am interested in democracy and the belief structure that it carries in societies today. That is why I started my project about democracy and elections in the world. The first part of this work is set in New York City on the night President Obama was elected. As a counterpoint to that night I followed my theme to Kabul and photographed during the presidential campaign in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<p> Picturing the run for president in these very different countries seems very far from a &#8216;good comparison&#8217;, but putting together pictures of the people in the street, portraits of different classes, reveals some evidence: People share similar hopes, in Afghanistan or in the United States, and I believe all around the world. They look forward to better governance, for change, for a good life under a democratic system. The question is&#8230; can democracy bring that?<\/p>\n<p> I don\u2019t know but I think this kind of project can whisper some rough sketches as answers. I think both the interest and the role of photography relies not only in telling stories but also in asking questions.   <br \/>Those questions are still in my mind today as I embark on the further photographic investigation into this idea : What does an election for a citizen in Afghanistan mean?. What does he or she think about democracy? Surely a strange concept for a country that has been in a state of war for more than 30 years, whilst at the same time, for Americans, democracy is incredibly evolved and used as the very basis of society.<\/p>\n<p> Finally, as a photo-reporter, I travel widely and see many different things, experiencing a variety of situations. This way of life permits me to present my point of view to the different stories I work on. This is why I think these images work together well enough to be produced and shown as a single body of work.<\/p>\n<p> Baptiste Giroudon<br \/> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baptistegiroudon.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">www.baptistegiroudon.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Nov 2008, New York.<br \/> August 2009, Kabul.<\/div>\n<div><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"..\/stories\/portraitsofdemoc_to_web\" width=\"660\" height=\"580\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div>Baptiste Giroudon compares and contrasts the character and details of the US presidential election in November 2008 with the recent Afghan presidential elections.<\/div>\n<div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[20],"tags":[638,1016,1018,46,625,3261,49,48,1021,3257,1017,1019,347,831,1020],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.5 - 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