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The Good Life series
Two “typical” photographs of Barbados scenery seen through a window covered with frost bring together two geographies and cultures.
Depending on the viewer’s perspective, it may portray the Northern phenomena of traveling south in the winter to get away from the “grind”. Although the exoticization may be innocent on the part of individuals, this longing and idealization of warmer climates is often done with no concrete understanding of the reality of daily life for the people there. The beauty of the frost becomes an allegory for the privilege and opportunity that is possible in developed countries.
From the Caribbean perspective, or in fact from the perspective of any country of the global south, the insidious nature of frost suggests the Westernization that is occurring in many countries. The frost permeating across the surface points to the increasing quantity of foreign-owned property and business in underdeveloped countries, which drives up the cost of living and real estate for locals further increasing the economic gap between rich and poor. With this gap comes a counter-idealization and necessity, which has can be seen in the history of emigration bringing with it the trauma of displacement through the generations.
