Most of my travel portraits relate people to what they do, rather than what they happen to look like. We were walking through an old farming village near Xian where such amenities such as running water are non-existent. A teenager was doing the family dishes in the yard, using a bowl of water and lots of soap. She was talking with her mother and father when our group arrived. Our guide asked them if it was OK to make photographs, and they agreed. As members of our group questioned the family, I concentrated on making a portrait of this young woman, primarily because of how the light was falling on her at the moment. I call this “Rembrandt” light because it is soft and indirect, and allows me to expose for the highlights with my spot meter and thus put the rest of the scene into darkness. Most of the time, the subject had her head turned toward her work, away from the light. I waited until she turned away to look at her mother. As the light struck her face and shoulders I made this photograph. Her body language, expression, and task are very characteristic of life in rural China, and that is why I made this portrait in this manner.