The photo above was Gadling’s Photo of the Day for December 10th. I was surprised to read the following commentary on the picture:
I like it because it makes you realize how much of the Caribbean is in its details: canoe on a remote beach, kids playing in a muddy river, men sitting outside on a stoop smoking… If you do a panoramic shot of the buildings, it no longer has that classic, if not cliché, Caribbean feel.
Now, as soon as I saw that photo, I thought That’s somewhere in the Caribbean, and a few seconds later, I thought Curaçao, yes? (I’ve never been to Curaçao, by the way, though I’d love to.) So to read that the photo didn’t have “that classic, if not cliché, Caribbean feel” was interesting to me, because I thought that it was such a recognisable Caribbean picture postcard image.
Even more interesting was what the writer considers to be “classic” Caribbean “details”: “canoe on a remote beach, kids playing in a muddy river, men sitting outside on a stoop smoking”. If I saw a picture of any of those things, I am quite sure that I wouldn’t instantly think “Caribbean” (classic, clichéd or otherwise).
I found the whole thing to be a weird reminder of the image of the Caribbean in the eyes of others (the author of the Gadling post is from the Czech Republic). It’s really quite disconcerting.
has this guy never seen Grenada? or any of the islands that have the colourful port/coastal city buildings set up like this?
Of course, I noticed Scottish Hebridean island towns also had similar building faces, but usually more mountainous views behind, and less sunny seas/skies :-)
Chennette · December 11, 2007