While staying with Baaskaa, Bennie and me, Nasa developed a natural curiosity. At first she stuck to the script, telling us what she thought we expected to hear. But when she got to listen to Baaska and Bennie mapping out their future and complaining about their situation, she went silent. It was a curious silence. When I asked her what her dream was she looked quite startled, “No one ever asked me what I wanted!”
Because she started to learn how to read and write, she began looking at her environment differently.
Tired of Baaskaa’s and my cooking, she wanted to cook for herself. It took me a moment to realize that she didn’t understand the meaning of the numbers on the knobs of our electrical cooking plate. She just switched it on and off randomly, because she had seen us doing it. The concept that the temperature would increase with the corresponding number, 0-off and 4-the hottest, was foreign to her. It sounds silly, but when you think about it, someone must have explained to me how to use numerology in my daily life. Just because she could count from 1 to 10 didn’t mean she understands the larger concept of numbers.
From the very beginning Nasa experienced me with a camera permanently attached to my hand. This shiny expensive looking black object was so out of her realm that she just ignored it throughout the years. Out of the blue, she picked up my ‘point & shoot’ Lumix and fired away. At first she went crazy with it, but then she actually started to look at the pictures and adjusted her angles and compositions. (She ignored the exposure time, which makes her pictures more beautiful to me).
I loved it and tried to pose for her, but she wouldn’t have it. She had learnt from me, as I always asked the kids to be themselves and ignore the camera. Tough concept in Mongolia, people only take pictures when dressed up and on special occasions. The idea of candid photography is still a foreign one.
I was so proud of her running around the apartment and snapping pictures of everything that she deemed important. At first she was shy, taking pictures of objects only, but then she became brave and photographed us – well, mainly Baaskaa and his friends.
I adore Nasa's self portrait, of all her images it's my favorite.
Love this.
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