The "Welcome To Amish Country" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Walking through Lancaster, Pennsylvania's Central Market, searching for a few good cream-filled Long Johns.  Just in case you may not know what a Long John might be...it is much like a donut, but long in size rather than round.  A few of the stand holders in Central Market sell them with some of those stand holders being Amish.  When I make visits to the market house, which is open Tuesday, Friday and Saturday from daybreak to mid-afternoon, depending on how busy the stand holders may be during the day, I often take photographs of some of the stands to use in stories from time to time.  And, some of those photos contain Amish.  And, I have never been asked by a single Amish person not to take the photograph.  When visitors from other parts of the world come to Lancaster and head to Central Market, they too take photographs and some might have a photo of an Amish person in them.  Hey, that's life!  As long as you don't overdo it or make a spectacle of yourself while taking photos, very seldom have I ever seen the Amish holding their hand in front of their face.  I have written quite a few stories for this blog that feature the Amish and have taken photos to illustrate my story.  I wrote a series of stories about how Amish buggies are made and took photos to illustrate the procedure.  Everyone of those photos had an Amish person in them, since Amish buggies are made predominately by Amish people.  The secret is to not be a pest, take your photograph and put your camera away.  Same as it would be for any person.  I just received my latest copy of "The Saturday Evening Post" and the final story in the 80 page magazine was titled "Welcome to Amish Country."  It was a single page story that had a photograph that covered two-thirds of the page.  And, naturally, it featured a young Amish boy dressed in his normal Amish clothing.  The only difference in this photograph was the fact that the boy was sticking his tongue out at the photographer.  The caption under the photograph read..."Tongue lashing: An Old Order Amish community member shares his feelings about invasive photographers."  I must admit that this happens from time to time, but usually because the photographer made a big deal of taking the photo and more than likely continued to take photo after photo.  Hey, I might have stuck my tongue out at the guy had it been me he was taking a photograph of on that day.  I believe that just about everyone who lives in the Lancaster area as well as just about everyone else who comes to visit the Lancaster area know that the Amish do not like to have their photograph taken, but if you do it quickly and in a respectful manner, they more than likely will not stick their tongue out at you.  I believe that if the magazine photographer had prepared for the photograph, taken it quickly and taken his camera from his face, the young boy more than likely would not have reacted in the same manner. 

I'm sure they know that people like to take photographs of them, since they look and dress differently than we do, but if they do so in a respectful manner, they usually don't react as the young boy did in the magazine photograph.  And, for the magazine to publish a photo such as the one they did, well..."Shame On You!"  There is no need to publish a photograph such as they did.  I might be reading a different magazine next time instead of their magazine.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.