Summary Of A Too Perfect Picture By Teju Cole

In a world becoming increasingly saturated in media, the narratives of many cultures is spreading throughout the world. A problem arises, however, when this narrative is only created by people outside of the culture. Inaccurate and damaging ideas of what a culture is like spreads quickly around the world, contributing to existing power structures and further hurting countries which have historically suffered under the influences of other cultures. In A Too Perfect Picture, author Teju Cole discusses the ways in which foreigners, particularly western photographers, give an inaccurate narrative to the people of India. In Binyavanga Wainaina’s How to Write About Africa, the author uses the example of western authors writing about Africa to show

In Teju Cole’s A Too-Perfect Picture, the author discusses the ways in which western visitors misrepresent the country of India. Because of India’s past colonization by the British, Indians have a long history of the western world imposing power over them. Cole uses the example of Steve McCurry, a popular American photographer, who focuses his work around non-western cultures, and has a large collection of photos taken in India. McCurry tells the narrative of Indians as if they were stuck in the past, his pictures are based off “old ideas of what photographs of Indians should look like, what accoutrements of their lives should be: umbrellas, looms, sewing machines; not laptops wireless printers, escalators” (Cole 972). By failing to incorporate the complexity of modern India, McCurry creates an inaccurate narrative of Indians’ lives. As India is still struggling to separate themselves from the power the West imposed on them throughout history, this inaccuracy does a great deal of harm. If the world only sees Indians as stuck in the past and undeveloped, they will only be viewed as inferior to the western world. When foreigners start telling the stories of other cultures, it often is greatly influenced by their own misconceptions about that culture. The simplified version of a culture these foreigners try to represent cannot be accurate, because it is based off their own stereotypes, and fails to recognize how complex they really