Hai & Sam, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2012) by Wing Young Huie. (https://tmblr.co/ZYwbvwFzgtSG)
These photos are a part of the “We are the Other” series, which "infuses several concepts to connect people who don’t know each other well or at all" (Huie).
Samir, or Sam, is the gentleman in black and owns the grocery store Cup Foods shown on the right. Cup Foods has a grocery store, a butcher shop, a deli, and a mobile phone business. Cup Foods is two doors down from Tip Top Haircuts which is owned by Hai. The Vietnamese owner of Tip Top Haircuts offers a variety of haircuts for $9. When this picture was taken was the first instance the two owners met.
1 & 2. The pictures both feature the owners in front of the backgrounds of their store, mostly devoid of other people. This isolates them as the subjects of the photos. It also illuminates the transitory nature of their businesses, with how their customers goal is to pass through and move on until the businesses are needed again. In the barber shop, the two men are separated by the boy on the left, which is only emphasized by the lack of seats to the left of Sam. The right photo has the two men centered in the middle of an aisle. Given that aisles usually have customers passing through, their singular presence is more noticeable. The backgrounds also contrast areas of their businesses. This can translate to the isolation these small business owners face when their customers are the community and vice versa. The backdrops of the stores and their owners are completely unique, which is unlike a widespread Great Clips or Harris Teeter. The artists intentions was also to bring people who had never interacted with each other, sharing culture, experiences, and furthering strengthening the community. Hai immigrated from Vietnam and Samir is Muslim. They are both minorities in a community that they support and supports them. It is easy to other something because it is not seen as the norm for when people think of a role in society like small business owner or grocery store. Or maybe that is my perception of my white, middle-class background projecting onto the work.
3. The lack of interaction with the photographer or each other in the photo at least indicates that the situation is unusual for the people in the photograph. This indicates that their actions will be determined by the actions of the photographer, and by extent us the audience because we are seeing them from the photographer's perspective. This was done in the Handmaid's Tale as well when everybody was watching the Commander during The Ceremony because his actions would determine what they did. Being an other or an unusual component of an environment has the potential to radically change that environment than routines sometimes. The photographer and the unusual situation he has created disturbs the routine just as the Commander's presence and actions that are not regulated does as well. The imagrey does a good job of displaying otherness in The Handmaid's Tale. One of the most obvious examples is the color coding of the Wives, Marthas, Econowives, and Handmaids. But none of them besides the Handmaids have the white wings that limits their sight. Out of all the roles for women, interaction with Handmaids from any group is the most heavily regulated and dreaded because of the stigma relating to Handmaids and what the men think about them or the shameful lengths these women will go to to have a baby. No one wants to be too closely associated with the Handmaids for fear of being seen as corrupting them. Most people from my background probably would not want to reguarly associated with the establishments, the white walls and exposed heating vents and food brands that white tongues would have trouble pronouncing without practice. This of course is heavily linked to class-ism, racism, and xenophobia among other things. Casual conversations between the Marthas stop in recognition of otherness, just as the stillness and the lack focus and engagement of the two men with each other recognizes the otherness of each other in their personal spaces.
