14-NOV-2008
Cave dweller, Matmata, Tunisia, 2008
This young boy lives in an ancient house built into the wall of a cliff. I found him standing in the kitchen, dressed warmly but without shoes. My 24mm wideangle frame embraces the ancient rock walls and floor, as well as the tables laden with jars, pots, and baskets. With adverted eyes and hands in his pockets, the boy seems to reluctantly accept the steady flow of strangers through his home. It is a portrait of resignation.
15-NOV-2008
Friends, Houmt Souk, Tunisia, 2008
This dual portrait, featuring two friends waiting for the bus that will take them to school, expresses its point through incongruity. My vantage point brings them closely together, yet they remain emotionally apart from each other at the moment – each lost in their own thoughts. By shooting these young women in profile, the viewer relates to them indirectly, rather than directly, as an observer, rather than as a participant. It is a portrait of silences, as much as it is a portrait of friends.
11-OCT-2008
Dog fancier, Freedom, Wyoming, 2008
We visited Freedom, a semi-ghost town, in the middle of a snow squall. While our group of photographers was shooting there, a local driving a red pick up truck stopped at its only functioning building to pick up her mail. She had two of her dogs with her, and graciously endured an environmental portrait session in the snow. I made many images of her smiling at the camera as the snowflakes swirled about her. But the portrait that said the most turned out to be this one – the moment she takes her eyes away from the camera and looks instead at the dogs she cherishes. The dogs are not looking at the camera either.
17-MAY-2008
Stagecoach driver, Placerville, California, 2008
Making expressive portraits of people wearing hats with bills or brims, particularly at mid-day, can be very difficult. The high sun invariably creates deep facial shadows that can easily destroy the mood and detail of such portraits. I won’t use fill-flash in such situations, either. Bursts of artificial light can be intrusive, eventually making subjects feel self-conscious. They can also make people look unnatural. Some photographers will even bounce light off a reflector on to their subject’s faces. That might work with a model, but most of the people we photograph on our travels are not models, and it is often more natural not to pose them. I prefer to make portraits as naturally and spontaneously as possible, and when my subject’s face is in deep in the shadows, I will try to move my position to make the most of them by blending them with naturally occurring highlights. That is what I am doing in this portrait of a stagecoach driver. He was waiting on top of his stagecoach for a load of tourists to board. He was high, and I was low. I was underneath him, shooting up to catch the interplay of soft highlights and the shadow on his face. The highlights come from light reflecting off his white shirt onto the bottom of the nose, cheek, and forehead. His thoughts were elsewhere while I made this over the shoulder portrait. He was not posing for me, and I did not ask him to do anything for my sake. The leather hat and full beard, along with the vest and kerchief, take him back in time, and give us a portrait of a man with a hard job, yet softly viewed in gentle, indirect light.
18-MAY-2008
Nature photographer, Placerville, California, 2008
I was traveling through California’s Gold Rush country with my friend and fellow pbase photographer Tim May (
http://www.pbase.com/mityam ) and photographed him while he was pondering his choices on the rocky banks of the Cosumnes River. He stands in the shadows, yet the light from above illuminates his head as he weighs the photographic options in his mind. He is only a small part of the scene – most of the image is made up of rocks. There is so much to photograph in nature, and Tim’s task here is to isolate and define the essence of the scene before him. My task as a portraitist is to express the essence of my subject, Tim. He happens to be wearing a maroon shirt, which called attention to itself at the expense of the idea I was trying to get across in this portrait. When I converted the image to black and white, the problem vanished, and the image became stronger.
06-APR-2008
Family in transit, Mumbai, India, 2008
The old steps of Victoria Terminus provide a resting place for this family waiting for a train. This is a group environmental portrait, contrasting the needs of modern family life with the dark and worn history of what was once known as Bombay. The mother seems to be doing most of the work here – tending the needs of her children while balancing a lap full of packages. Everyone but her gets refreshment. The only member of the group that seems to notice my camera is the father. He stares into it with great intensity. I could sense his impatience, and made this my last shot.
04-APR-2008
No time for words, Cochin, India, 2008
There seems to be something to read on every inch of wall space in Cochin. Even the posts are covered in words. A municipal sign is almost lost in the welter of language. Yet this man seems to have to no time for any of it. This incongruous verbal clutter is part of his world, and his thoughts are elsewhere at this moment. This is an environmental portrait where the environment itself tells the story.
02-APR-2008
Tailor, Moncombu, Kerala, India, 2008
This tailor is well known in the village of Moncumbu. I later showed this picture to a crewmember on our houseboat, and he told me that it was a very good “likeness.” The entire front of his shop was open to the street, and I stood there for a few minutes watching him work. My guide was with me, and as he was talking to him, I kept shooting. At one point, the tailor looked up from his work, as if he was thinking about something my guide had said. In that instant, I found his character – thoughtful, confident, and secure in his skills.
04-APR-2008
Greeting, Cochin, India, 2008
This man was working on the awning of a Hindu temple. As I photographed him at work, he turned on his ladder and greeted me by placing his palms together, and bowing slightly. I responded in kind and made this portrait. There is an overwhelming sense of place in this portrait – the colors that fill the image are the essence of India itself. And so, too, is his gentle manner and gracious conduct.
01-APR-2008
Gandhi’s double, Kanjipadam, Kerala, India, 2008
I found this man selling newspapers in a small village shop. He reminded me of the man on the poster behind him – Mahatma Gandhi, the father of modern India. Unlike the man in my previous portrait, I confronted him directly. I stopped in front of his shop and pointed to my camera and then to him, signaling my intention to take a picture, and giving him a chance to refuse if he wished. Very few Indians refused me or asked for payment. This man just stared at me, giving the portrait a straightforward, honest quality. If someone smiles for the camera, I make the picture, but rarely keep such photos. I don’t want pictures of people participating in a photographic ritual. I want pictures that tell a story or express ideas, as this one does. This image expresses the nature of a man, his work, and his place. By sheer accident, he also resembles a man he obviously idolizes.
02-APR-2008
Portrait in the rain, Kerala Backwaters, India, 2008
As our houseboat cruised the rivers of the Kerala backwaters, just off the tropical Malabar Coast in Southwestern India, I was able to make a number of environmental portraits. This was my favorite – a man patiently enduring a rainsquall. We were fairly close to the shore – a 300mm telephoto focal length worked well for me. He stands behind a dugout canoe on the riverbank, sheltered by both an umbrella and a palm. His body language is both patient and confident. He has obviously seen such moments before. They are part of his life.
30-MAR-2008
Alley dweller, Varanasi, India, 2008
I am often asked how I make such intimate street portraits as this one without even speaking the language of my subjects. This image is a good example of my approach. I want to seem like a snapshooting tourist. I use a very small camera for such shots as this, one that looks very much like a harmless point and shoot model. (It is not – the Leica D-Lux-3 is a full-featured wideangle pocketable camera.) I never hold a camera up to my eye, either – I hold it away from me and look at the large LCD viewfinder from a distance. In that way, he can see my face, and see my enthusiastic response towards everything around me but him. I saw this man hanging out over the narrow street and angled my camera towards the opposite wall and distant figures walking ahead of me. I kept my eyes on them. Because of my 28mm wideangle lens, he is in my picture as well, although he does not know it. I never confronted him – I kept my head turned elsewhere as I made this image.