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On Being an Outsider

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Re: On Being an Outsider

#31
post #10

Some really nice photos in the article.

Spectacular use of color, sometimes in bars across the image despite the color sources not being the same. Photographers: do you see a lot of postprocessing here, or is it largely in camera?

I think there is a decent amount of postprocessing, but I don't consider that a slight against the photos. Photography is an art that takes place equally behind the camera and in the darkroom (or Lightroom as the case may be).

I see:

* Very likely quite a bit of cropping going on. The framing on the subway fight is perfect, which I imagine would be hard to pull off in the time needed while the fight was occurring.

* Also likely some perspective correction in post. The horizontal and vertical lines of the office building are damn near pixel accurate. Even with a good tilt-shift lens, I'd be surprised if that was accomplished entirely in-camera. Most lenses have some amount of distortion.

* Color correction is common but hard to strictly demonstrate. But, in general, the color in all of these is too beautiful to be real to me.

* Some HDR, but well done (which is rare). Look at the shot of the party. You can see some texture on the dark building facade, even though the illumination of that is likely several orders of magnitude darker than the windows. The texture looks sort of weird and squishy, which likely means that the brightness of the building was raised significantly in post, or possibly even a combination of two shots with different exposures.

Wonderful work.

Re: On Being an Outsider

#32
I moved for university to Toronto, Canada (from India) when I was 18. Despite having lived here for (nearly) 4 years, and loving absolutely every single minute of it, I don't know if and how I will ever be truly claim myself as being "from" Toronto.

Everytime someone here asks me where am I from, I genuinely don't know how to answer them.

Do I say I'm from India? Well, I haven't gone back once in these 5 years, and I do feel more at home here in Toronto than I would in India, so I'm not sure that's fair. So do I then say I'm from Toronto? But that feels almost like cheating - I didn't have a childhood here, I have no stories to recall from school trips, so how can I lay claim to this beautiful city?

I am coming to accept that I truly belong from nowhere. That I have transient experiences that stretch from Delhi to Mumbai to Chandigarh to Toronto to Ottawa (interned there for a year). The inherent complexity of the question "where are you from?" affords it no wrong or right answers, and at least theoretically, I should not be ashamed to claim the place I resonate with the most, or claim no place at all.

PS: Looking at the comments, it does feel nice to know that I am not the only one that somehow continues to seek a sense of belonging.

Re: On Being an Outsider

#33
post #19

I see people get integrated into society through children. You live in Berlin, you need to send your children to school, talk to the teachers, other parents. You drop your children off to the house parties, you talk about your profession in front of your child's class. German language becomes a clear necessity. People also say joining some club helps. I did kickboxing for year, there isn't much talking as it turns ou…

Is there no Russian/ex-USSR expat community where you live?

Re: On Being an Outsider

#34
post #27

I have always loved Japan. I visited once, and made plans to move there. I lived in the heart of Tokyo for three years. I made a lot of friends, but being a white American, I came to grasps that I would always be a Gaijin, and that I would never fit in, no mater how well I spoke Japanese or adopted to their customs. I left Japan to focus on my future somewhere back in America. 10 years later I booked a three week tri…

Do you feel like being considered a gaijin was a form of racism towards you?

Why do you think skin color is the driving factor? People normally consider each other aliens even if they have the same skin color.

Re: On Being an Outsider

#35

I moved for university to Toronto, Canada (from India) when I was 18. Despite having lived here for (nearly) 4 years, and loving absolutely every single minute of it, I don't know if and how I will ever be truly claim myself as being "from" Toronto. Everytime someone here asks me where am I from, I genuinely don't know how to answer them. Do I say I'm from India? Well, I haven't gone back once in these 5 years, and I…

I think you're overthinking the "where are you from" question. While I do agree that moving at 18 isn't as clear-cut as say, 30+, in your case most people would safely say you're from India, having been born there and lived the majority of your years there. However, your home would now be Toronto, and you if you have Canadian citizenship no-one should bat any eyebrows at you calling yourself Canadian.

Re: On Being an Outsider

#36
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes well I was evidently taking the piss out of him

Please don't take HN threads further into flamewar. It makes discussion considerably less interesting and usually nastier as well. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Hey dang can I please ask you something? I tried to leave a message on another thread but you did not reply.

Re: On Being an Outsider

#37
I'm glad people are talking about this.

I think capitalism is extremely isolating.

You have to move for your job, so people have to cut all the ties that they've made, leave their communities, friends, families....all for money.

Sure you can make new ones, but after working and commuting for 8 to 10 hours a day you get home exhausted and on weekends you have to take care of personal errands.

Now multiply this times millions of people, it makes it very hard for multiple people to have the time and energy to forge a friendship that will take effort and time. Effort and time that people don't really have.

There's tons of studies about how isolated people become after college.

I don't know what the solution is.

Remote work is going to be awesome and huge to help with this.

Re: On Being an Outsider

#38

I moved for university to Toronto, Canada (from India) when I was 18. Despite having lived here for (nearly) 4 years, and loving absolutely every single minute of it, I don't know if and how I will ever be truly claim myself as being "from" Toronto. Everytime someone here asks me where am I from, I genuinely don't know how to answer them. Do I say I'm from India? Well, I haven't gone back once in these 5 years, and I…

I think you're overthinking the "where are you from" question. While I do agree that moving at 18 isn't as clear-cut as say, 30+, in your case most people would safely say you're from India, having been born there and lived the majority of your years there. However, your home would now be Toronto, and you if you have Canadian citizenship no-one should bat any eyebrows at you calling yourself Canadian.

I don't think OP is overthinking it at all. Home is not just a question of place of living but a question of identity and belonging. I'm guessing integrating into society in Toronto is difficult for OP so there's weak feeling of belonging in Toronto.

Re: On Being an Outsider

#39
post #34
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you feel like being considered a gaijin was a form of racism towards you?

Why do you think skin color is the driving factor? People normally consider each other aliens even if they have the same skin color.

I'm asking OP if they do because of this line:

>being a white American, I came to grasps that I would always be a Gaijin,

Re: On Being an Outsider

#40
post #36
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't take HN threads further into flamewar. It makes discussion considerably less interesting and usually nastier as well. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Hey dang can I please ask you something? I tried to leave a message on another thread but you did not reply.

Send an email to hn@ycombinator.com.
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