Woman Waiting to Take a Photograph

 by David Eggers

The woman is a young woman. She wants to make a living as a photographer, but at the moment she is temping at a company that publishes books about wetlands preservation. On her days off she takes pictures, and today she is sitting in her car, across the street from a small grocery store called The Go-Getters Market. The store is located in a very poor neighborhood: the windows are barred and at night a roll-down steel door covers the storefront. The woman thus finds the name Go-Getters an interesting one, because it is clear that the customers of the market are anything but. They are drunkards and prostitutes and transients, and the young photographer thinks that if she can get the right picture of some of these people entering the store, she will make a picture that would be considered trenchant, or even poignant - either way the product of a sharp and observant eye. So she sits in her Toyota Camry, which her parents gave her because it was four years old and they wanted something new, and she waits for the right poor person to enter or leave the store. She has her window closed, but will open it when the right person appears, and then shoot that person under the sign that says Go-Getters. This, for the viewer of her photograph when it is displayed - first in a gallery, then in the hallway of a collector, and later in a museum when she has her retrospective - will prove that she, the photographer, has a good eye for the inequities and injustices of life, for hypocrisy and the exploitation of the underclass.

Questions and Answers

1. What is the time frame of this vignette? The time frame for this vignette could be anywhere between the late 90's and late 2000's based off the mentioning of the Toyota Camry in the short story.

2. What does the text imply about photography and about photographers? The text implies that in a sort of mocking way that photographers have it easy or a lazy sort of life style. It also implies that photography that in itself is easy to get away with and the author is almost criticizing the medium.

3. What is the writer’s attitude toward the woman? What words and phrases suggest that attitude? The attitude towards the woman is a bit negative because of how describes the surrounding settings: "The woman thus finds the name Go-Getters an interesting one, because it is clear that the customers of the market are anything but. They are drunkards and prostitutes and transients, and the young photographer thinks that if she can get the right picture of some of these people entering the store, she will make a picture that would be considered trenchant, or even poignant - either way the product of a sharp and observant eye." So he's criticizing her choice of environment and her choice in selecting the people for her mediums based off and interesting store called "Go-Getters".

4. How does the writer’s repetition of the term “Go-Getters” function in the text? The repetition of the term literally is used in a mocking way. He says it to emphasize his point on the fact that theses people like the woman are anything but "Go-Getters"

5. How does the final sentence build on observed details? It brings more of a negative feeling because he's being hypocritical judging the photographer the way she's judging the people she trying to take a photo of. Mocking the fact that maybe she will do well with her efforts enough to be recognized by society.

6. What new idea or surprise emerges in the final sentence? The tone in the last sentence surprises me because it comes off very sarcastic, almost menacing just to prove how much he doesn't like the young woman.