Colors 66 came in today.
This issue comes at a reduced size of 12cm X 15 cm, which is almost the size of a standard greeting card. It carries 240 pages of various wishes from people around the world.
I have always liked Colors for the simple fact that it reminds me of humanity. It reminds me of the hardship of life for many others out there – where survival is the only real goal in life, while we live in a world in which our obsession is to download the latest episode of LOST to find out whetherJack, Locke and Sayid survive. Come to think about it, life is too easy. People have time to blog about expensive dinner, to bitch about people, to exhibit holiday trips, to exchange dating and relationship tips and for some, to describe last night’s orgasm.
The different worlds. The great divide.
Ignore all the criticisms hurled at it as being Benetton’s branding machine and the pretentious humanitarian approach, Colors, for what it is, is still a remarkable feat in editorial and design.
“They called him Superstar. He was a talented football player and was even in the police youth squad. He taught the younger ones street games. He helped all the old people fetch water and food… He had a piggy bank and was elated when someone bought him an electric toy car as a gift for looking after a sick granny. Refusing to open it , he kept it hidden for Christmas. He never got to open it. On Monday night two teenagers opened fire on a group of people hanging out to escape the heat during a power out. The bullet entered the back of his head, bounced around and exited his mouth. He was not into drugs or a gang member and had no wishes to be one. He was just 13 years old. He was going to be my assistant. I wish they hadn’t killed Billy.” – Alex Smiles, UK photographer at Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
“When I was a child I had many dreams and wishes. A nice house, a good job, enough money. But now I have only one wish, that my son will not work as a prostitute like me.” – Lek, 28, Bargirl, Susaket, Thailand.
After reading the many wishes from around the world, the editor ends it with this:
“You’ll find out if wishing is just the easy way to escape reality or the first, giant step toward creating a new one”.
I supposed our rantings and whinings about everything from clients to computer crashes to 30 cents petrol increase are insignificant, when we start to see what goes on in other people’s life.
