A non-academic aside.

Brick Kiln Worker near Wagah Pakistan
Originally uploaded by Sbmoot.

I took this photo in December, 2006 while returning from the border ceremony at Wagah, near Lahore. I find myself returning to this face very often - something about the man himself, and the portrait, seems to have become part of me.

He is a worker in one of the brick kilns that dot the landscape in northern Punjab, where they use the red clay to make the bricks used in construction all over Pakistan. I had wanted to have a look inside one of these places for a while, and my driver stopped spontaneously, suggesting we go in. I was only there for about 10 minutes, but it was enough to confirm that I am very glad this is not my lot in life.

Many (some say most or all) of the workers at these kilns are essentially slaves - bonded-debt labourers. I don't know what this young man's status is, but I fear he is in that group. Like most Pakistanis he was very happy about having his picture taken by a Western visitor, and when I showed him his own face on the back of my digital camera, he squealed with delight and ran off laughing. I still think of him often.

So today I went back to Photoshop and revised the portrait with the intent of putting him more in the forefront, somewhat out of context, the way memories become decontextualized sometimes, or acquire new contexts when they become very important. This is the result.