Synthetical  Diversity  for  Celebrating  Differences.        By  William      To  be  published  Complexd  Magazine  is  a  bi-­‐monthly  fashion  &  lifestyle  publication  for  Multicultural  Women  in  the  UK.  Delivering  rich  content  that  is  visually  diverse  and  representative  of  reality;  Complexd  is  for  aspiring  and  aspiring  women.    By-­‐line:      William  is  an  author,  entrepreneur,  technologist,  and  photographer,  has  worked  around  the  world,  and  is  married  with  two  wonderful  multicultural  children.    See  his  work  at  www.GestaltPhotographs.com.    He  can  be  reached  at  William@gestaltphotographs.com.    Article:    Has  everything  and  everyone  in  mass  media,  urban  development,  marketing,  technology  become  alike  or  fall  into  one  of  a  few  categories,  good-­‐looking  people  with  large  mass  appeal,  diverse  peoples'  photographs  being  uncannily  similar,  paparazzi's  candid  shots  looking  the  same  no  matter  who  the  subject  is,  modeling  poses  world-­‐wide  copying  each  other,  newscasters'  voices  with  no  accents,  cities  around  the  world  filled  with  the  same  chain  stores  as  my  local  mall  or  neighborhood?  Do  you  see  homogeneity  everywhere  you  look?  Do  you  feel  a  sense  of  profound  sadness,  not  at  enjoying  the  benefits  to  society  of  what's  been  created,  but  at  what's  been  lost?  I  do.    What  is  happening?  What  is  that  is  lost?  Is  it  just  my  rigid  attachment  to  tradition  that  no  longer  serve  us,  tradition  in  the  way  of  building  a  world  culture  that  brings  diverse  people  together  into  a  community  that  extends  beyond  national  boundaries?  A  world  culture  is  a  laudable  goal.  But,  are  the  differences  between  cultures  being  melted  together  into  one,  slowly  and  uncontrollably  without  purposefulness?  Or  are  we  in  a  cultural  battle,  with  one  culture  vying  to  becoming  dominate?  Is  the  subtly  and  lack  of  focus  on  this  in  mass  media  for  the  sake  of  pushing  one  world  culture  forward,  or  is  it  just  avoiding  difficult  but  authentic  conversation?  I  think  the  latter.  cultural  diversity  confusion  extends  much  deeper,  not  limited  to  just  society,  but  permeating  corporations  creating  work  environments  that  prevent  any  sense  of  celebrating  differences  with  respect  to  diversity  other  than  prescribed  company  policies  carefully  written  for  legal  compliance  to  prevent  discrimination,  protecting  minority  from  majority.  The  goal  is  worthy,  diversity  recognized  as  necessary  and  diversity  protected.  Unfortunately,  the  strictures  enacted  reduce  celebration  of  difference  to  celebration  of  uniformity,  to  right  of  existence,  shying  from  real,  

significant  cultural  diversity,  or  creating  dialog  on  the  utter  and  absolute  differences.  Fear  of  harassment,  lawsuits,  uncomfortable  situations,  all  leading  to  suppression  of  differences  not  widely  accepted,  focusing  on  and  advancing  acceptance  of  differences  that  are  culturally  accepted  by  all,  often  superficial  difference,  or  upon  reflection  not  a  cultural  difference  at  all.  In  the  end,  majority  rules  and  one  culture  is  created.    Society,  government,  and  commerce  drive  the  celebration  of  diversity,  albeit  unknowingly,  through  assimilation,  not  by  respect,  reverence,  or  understanding,  not  by  

creating  a  moral  crisis  calling  for  understand  and  empathy,  certainly  not  to  construct  a  new  culture  which  allows  both  to  exist  but  forces  all  to  a  new  level  of  knowledge  and  development.    Why  should  we  care?  Something  is  being  lost,  and  if  we  don't  identify  it,  engaging  it,  we  lose  it,  forever,  extinct.  This  is  the  source  of  the  sadness  I  feel  when  I  see  sameness  around  me,  in  every  corner  of  the  world,  covering  the  differences.  The  desire  for  one  society  is  deserving,  yes,  but  for  one  idea,  no,  one  culture,  never.  We  know  what  happens  in  the  past  when  one  culture  smothers  another-­‐-­‐brilliant  ideas  are  lost,  subtly  forgotten,  and  centuries  before  any  comprehension  of  what  was  lost  is  brought  into  main-­‐stream  society,  consider  sustainability  practiced  by  American  Indians,  think  centuries  old  medical  practices  of  now  lost  Brazilian  tribes.  What  extraordinary  ideas  have  we  just  missed  by  not  looking,  synergies  between  societies  lost,  lost  because  we  do  not  know  how  to  celebrate  differences  in  a  positive  engaging  way.  But  these  are  grandiose  examples,  think  of  the  little  differences  that  

are  forgotten  or  push  aside  each  day,  what  we  cut  and  never  recover,  without  ever  knowing,  the  individual  daily  differences  between  all  of  us.    Out  of  these  thoughts  came  an  alternative  photographic  project  calling  to  me.  The  photos  here  are  two  examples  of  the  ongoing  experiment,  searching  for  an  aesthetic  in  photographs  to  observe  differences  rather  than  abstract  them  into  mediocrity,  pushing  away  a  desire  to  assimilate  and  reduce  us  all  to  one  concept,  refusing  to  neglect  all  other  meaning  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  our  own  myopic  views  to  simplify  the  world,  in  a  hope  to  link  to  further  

understanding  and  acceptance  of  ideas  not  our  own  with  joy  and  celebratory  action.  Classical  portraits  focus  on  the  emotional  connection,  a  relationship  a  viewer  can  "see"  in  the  eyes  and  face  of  the  subject,  what  if  we  get  the  viewer  to  "see"  something  else,  see  something  not  contained  within  themselves,  but  outside  themselves?    These  are  not  classical  portraits  derived  from  Greco-­‐Roman  artists  vision,  but  portraits  derived  from  difference  and  multicultural  life.    I  call  the  idea  synthetical  diversity,  borrowing  a  concept  from  Kantian  philosophy  of  synthetical  knowledge,  creating  a  new  idea  by  combining  two  ideas,  recognizing  neither  original  idea  alone  would  take  you  to  the  new  idea,  an  idea  that  would  not  exist  but  for  the  existence  and  knowledge  of  the  two  that  gave  it  birth.  Without  differences  there  would  be  no  new  ideas  except  refining  existing  ideas.  Visually  photographs  have  a  voice  unlike  

others  to  convey  the  celebration  of  difference  in  a  single  instant.  Highlighting  a  difference  as  the  focal  point  of  the  photograph,  but  connection  via  a  human  aesthetic,  appealing,  enticing,  engaging,  enlightening,  in  an  instant,  allowing  the  viewer  of  the  picture  to  identify  not  just  on  similarity,  but  on  diversity  at  the  same  time.  For  me  celebrating  differences  brought  to  life  by  diversity,  focusing,  not  glossing  over,  but  stopping  on  them,  immersing  oneself  in  them,  enhancing  them,  highlighting  them,  above  all  celebrating  them  and  the  strength  encapsulated,  is  where  photographs  have  changed  the  world  and  will  change  it  again  in  the  future  if  we  accept  it.    We  are  not  defined  by  the  past,  locked  into  geography,  or  slow  moving  ideas.  Ideas  move  fast,  societies  change  overnight,  we  can  become  aware  of  how  our  admirable  goals  need  to  be  inclusion  and  celebration  instead  of  assimilation  and  elimination.  One  culture  doesn't  have  to  win  over  another.  We  can  make  a  positive  celebrated  multicultural  society,  bring  the  best  of  all,  view  points  from  directions  we  never  imagined  existed,  exciting  ideas  that  never  existed  before,  ideas  for  a  sustaining  growing  fearless  society.