15-Jul-2019
A child in stone, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Tarrytown, New York, 2019
This image expresses an enigmatic idea, rich in mystery and somber in mood. I render it in black and white, removing the colors to better serve the story. The image is also a study in textures, which bracket the stone monuments between rough grass and heavy foliage. More than half this image is earth, the final resting place of those lie beneath these grave markers.
The light softly brushes the face of these markers, and adds dimensionality to the figure of a child within the one at left. The child cast in stone, with its arms crossed upon its chest, becomes the subject of this story. We leave it to the viewer's imagination to ponder the elusive, tragic nature of a life cut short. Who was he? How did he die? We may never know but we will perhaps remember this image long after it has gone from our sight.
The image also benefits from the famous nature of its setting -- this name of the cemetery itself sets the mind spinning. It was here where the author Washington Irving is buried -- his gothic story, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," published in 1820, features a chilling character known as The Headless Horseman, believed to be a Hessian soldier who was decapitated by a cannonball in battle.
A sentence from Irving's story echoes the mood of my image, as well. "A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere." The cemetery is also known as The Old Dutch Burying Ground. It provides the setting for several scenes in Irving's story. During the American Revolution, the headless corpse of a Hessian soldier was actually found here, and buried in an unmarked grave, providing Irving with a fact upon which to build his legendary fictional tale.
14-Jul-2019
Ella's visitor, Chichester Cemetery, Bedford, New York, 2019
This is a ghost story. A colorful bird sits upon a spattered and worn tombstone engraved with the name "Ella M." The incongruities here contrast beauty with decay, large with small, and colorful with drab. To some, the bird may represent Ella's ghost. To others, her spirit. Ultimately, some may even see this image as a study of rebirth. I used a very long lens (750mm) to read out across a long distance and make the small bird clearly visible. I could come no closer to this bird - it would have fled, spoiling my story!
17-NOV-2011
A cat’s tale, Caesarea, Israel, 2011
Huge limestone rocks fill the shoreline of what remains of Herod the Great’s Harbor in Caesarea. Dozens of cats scramble among them – their ancestors have lived here for centuries. I found this black cat perched on one of those rocks, looking out to sea in a light drizzle. The cat anchors the foreground, its tail lodged neatly in the lower left hand corner of the frame. The colors move us through the image; beginning with the richly saturated rocks, back through a pale green sea, to the white crest of the crashing waves, a blue gray sky, and looming rain clouds in the background. The image is timeless – the cat represents continuity that defines the nature of this ancient place. What is going on below those pointed ears? The image makes us think like a cat.
16-NOV-2011
Soldiers along the Suez Canal, Egypt, 2011
Our cruise ship passed the length of Egypt’s Suez Canal, a 120-mile long single lane of water connecting the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. It handles more traffic than the Panama Canal, and is a critical strategic factor in the world economy. The Egyptian army has deployed troops along the length of the canal. I photographed two of them guarding this spot of desert along its banks. Weapons in hand, they stared at the passing cruise liner as if it was an apparition.
Once again, I ask the viewer to imagine what they might be thinking. Two men, alone in the desert, guarding one of the most essential waterways on earth, suddenly look up to find dozens of waving cruise passengers floating by.
01-JAN-2011
Contrast, St. Barts, French West Indies, 2011
It is early afternoon in St. Barts marina on New Years day, and a man sleeps off the effects of the previous evening’s celebration. Only a few yards away, a woman standing on the rear deck of a massive yacht enjoys a phone conversation with someone who may be on the other side of the world. I juxtapose the two situations – neither person is aware of each other, but we are aware of both. The story here expresses a contrast of levels: energy, social, and economic. I leave it to my viewers to draw their own conclusions.
01-JAN-2011
The morning after, St. Barts, French West Indies, 2011
I roamed the streets of St. Barts on New Year’s morning. Some of the town’s bars had not yet removed the residue of revelry from the previous evening. This image tells the story of the morning after. The image is silent – featuring four empty plastic chairs awash in smashed cups and empty champagne bottles. The revelers are nowhere to be seen.
01-JAN-2011
Communications, St. Barts, French West Indies, 2011
The world’s money seemed to converge on tiny St. Barts in the Caribbean to celebrate the arrival of 2011. Dozens of huge yachts were anchored in the town’s marina, each of them bearing massive satellite communications gear. I photographed the scene with a long lens, compressing the yachts into a single entity under a soaring cumulus cloud. It tells the story of wealth, and its attendant perks.
01-JAN-2011
Command, St. Barts, French West Indies, 2011
One of the many luxury yachts cruising St. Barts harbor on New Year’s Day sweeps by my camera, and I zoom in on its bridge to tell a story of command. Four people share space here – three are in the light, one works in the shadows. The dynamics of positioning and body language within that space tells a story in itself. I assume the fellow in the shadows is piloting the yacht. The other three people may belong to the crew or they may be passengers. Perhaps someone in this gathering may even own this yacht? The man at left keeps his distance. He seems to be an observer. The man and woman share space together, front and center. She looks attentive. He wears sunglasses over his eyes, and another pair hangs from his shirt. He grips the yacht’s windshield. Of them all, he seems to be in charge here. We can’t know the actual story expressed by this image. The facts rest on the surface, and we can’t dig behind them. However our imaginations are free to prompt us to draw our own conclusions.
02-JUN-2010
Gallery window, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2010
In this image, I juxtapose an enormous stylized painting of a Native American against a traditional Indian war bonnet. I abstract the face in the painting by cropping it just below the eyes so that the face seems to be unable to see. Barely visible in the painting are the ends of feathers that enter from the top of the frame. The war bonnet, however, is seen in its entirety, yet it appears much darker than the painting, as if lost in time. My juxtaposition tells the story of vibrant Native American cultural pride, yet a pride tempered by a history of war, oppression and suffering over the centuries.
12-NOV-2009
Navajo ponies, Monument Valley, Arizona, 2009
It is a simple image, yet one that tells a story that resonates with history. We encountered a group of ponies grazing at the base of one of Monument Valley’s famous buttes. Our presence obviously spooked them, because as soon as we arrived, they scattered. Two of them plodded past me, heading towards the prospect of food. I filled the foreground with grasses, representing such sustenance. A huge bush dominates the image, making the ponies seem small in comparison. A berm of compacted red sand fills the space behind them, removing all traces of sky and plain. The small horses belong to Navajos, possibly descended from horses originally brought to this place by Spanish conquistadors 400 years ago. The horse became a critical component of Navajo culture, originally providing transport for their nomadic lifestyle as well as giving the means to fight the Spanish and predatory Indian tribes. Today the Monument Valley Navajo use the ponies to offer tours and trail rides to tourists.
20-OCT-2009
Student memorial, Bucharest, Romania 2009
The pitted, scarred walls on the corner of a building near Bucharest’s university tell a poignant story of protest and death. It all began twenty years ago when Romania’s Communist regime fell. A cross at left speaks of a killing at or near this spot, most likely that of a university student. On the other wall, someone has written in blood red letters “Bucurest 1989,” and “Rangoon 2007” matching Romania’s struggle against a totalitarian regime with a cotemporary struggle in Burma. There is still another story being told through the colors and textures in this image. The residue of hundreds of posters -- dried paste from various student protests over the years -- remains vividly evident. Although those posters are gone, their echoes will not be easily forgotten.
23-OCT-2009
World War I Monument, Cismigiu Garden, Bucharest, Romania, 2009
This Carrara marble sculpture by Ion Jalea, depicting a dying French soldier being comforted by a loving embrace, is Romania’s tribute to the French soldiers who perished here during World War I. I zoomed in on to the faces to reveal the ravages of time on the marble and tell the story more intimately. The once pristine faces, revealing ninety years of grit, seem to imply that the battle still continues. The long 400mm focal length of my lens has turned the background of leaves and flowers into a softly focused screen resembling stained glass, adding a mournful context.
18-OCT-2009
Spectators, University Park, Kiev, Ukraine, 2009
We came upon a group of people doing exercises together in this park, but my gaze shifted from them to this pair of spectators who stood above them on the base of a monument. A young child takes her cues from her own personal trainer, and I photograph her mimicking the gestures of the exercisers that labor out of sight just below her. Some might wonder why I chose to leave out the exercisers? My answer is simple – I would rather leave room for the imaginations of my viewers to enter the story. Expressive travel photographs often work in tandem with words, and this image would best require a caption or accompanying article that would add the necessary context.
09-APR-2009
Ghost story, Congress Hotel, Tucson, Arizona, 2006
I don’t believe in ghosts. But after a visit to the Hotel Congress in Tucson, I am no long so sure of myself on this point. The hotel, built in 1919, is widely considered to be haunted. The front desk manager kindly allowed us to go upstairs and visit rooms that were in the process of being cleaned by the maids. I asked one of the maids if she had ever felt the presence of a ghost. She said that the door to Room 214 often closed by itself when she propped it open. I watched her clean Room 214, and as she worked, I photographed a pile of bedclothes that she had temporarily placed in a chair next to the window. It looks eerily like a person. The 1920s painting on the wall adds to the illusion. When the maid finished cleaning Room 214 she turned off the room's radio that she had been listening to. I stayed in the room for a few moments, and the radio mysteriously came back on again. I asked the maid about it as I left. She said it happens all the time. When I look at this image of the “person in the chair” and the 1920’s painting on the wall, it makes me question my own certainties.
10-APR-2009
Remembrance, Gleeson, Arizona, 2009
Gleeson was once a copper mining town, flourishing from 1900 to 1939. For the last seventy years it has been a ghost town. A couple of ruined buildings and its old cemetery are all that is left of it. In that cemetery, I found the grave of Paul Christiansen. He was born in 1931 and died in 1938, just about the time that Gleeson itself died. His grave is strewn with remembrances, left, no doubt, by visitors who were moved by the death of a seven year old boy, buried on a windswept hill outside of a town that was no more. The most touching remembrance is a figure of an angel, wrapped in a blue scarf. It seems to be sleeping here as soundly as the boy it commemorates. The mid-day light is harsh, the colors raw and unforgiving. They seem appropriate for both the purpose and place.
11-NOV-2008
Mysteries, Tozeur, Tunisia, 2008
This image began as a picture of man seeking alms, who finds none. (See my image of him at (
http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/image/106454852 ) Gradually others passed through my frame, and one of them, a woman wearing the traditional black Muslim scarf, came towards me. As she neared, I could see that her face was quite sad. I made this image of her, while the man in the background continued to sit motionless, before a mysterious red gate, waiting for his own world to brighten.
14-NOV-2008
The leak, Matmata, Tunisia, 2008
I made this photo in the central courtyard of one of the most bizarre hotels in the world. All of its rooms are built into caves. It is so incongruous that scenes in the first Star War movie were filmed here. When I stood in the courtyard, I noticed a stream of water coming at us from a doorway marked “Toilette.” Using my 24mm wideangle lens, I use that stream as a diagonal to pull the entire image together and tell a story only a plumber would enjoy.
I made this photo in the central courtyard of one of the most bizarre hotels in the world. All of its rooms are built into caves. It is so incongruous that scenes in the first Star War movie were filmed here. When I stood in the courtyard, I noticed a stream of water coming at us from a doorway marked “Toilette.” Using my 24mm wideangle lens, I use that stream as a diagonal to pull the entire image together and tell a story only a plumber would enjoy.
10-OCT-2008
Returning to the herd, Gardner River, Yellowstone National Park, Montana, 2008
A female elk and her calf walk in the shallow waters of the Gardner River, making their way to the herd, which is grazing nearby. My high vantage point and medium 60mm focal length enable me to feature the snow-splashed environment, and thereby tell my story. It is a story of maternal instincts, the bitter cold Montana weather, icy rivers and snowy banks. The colors are muted, as chilly as the temperature. The only warmth in the image comes from the vulnerable pair of brown elk cautiously wending their way home to the herd.
15-MAY-2008
Sun Sun Wo Store, Coulterville, California, 2008
This tiny adobe building is the sole remnant of one of the California Gold Rush’s largest Chinatowns. Built by Chinese miners in 1851, it served as a general store until the 1970s, when it closed down. Shut down for thirty years, it was reopened two years ago as a curio shop. I placed my camera just inside of the front door and made this image of what you would see if you looked inside. Once our eyes adjust to the darkness, a mélange of heads, hats, dishes, figurines, lamps, dolls, and jewelry compete for attention. Where gold miners once purchased supplies and food, now tourists shop for Gold Country keepsakes. This image tells us about a hunt for treasure – be it gold nuggets, or an unusual doll.
15-MAY-2008
“He will deliver,” Coulterville, California, 2008
This parked vehicle tells a story of rural politics. It was parked in the center of Coulterville, a motorized campaign poster promoting the election of Silverman as Supervisor. An American flag flies in the background – as it does for all politicians. Two smaller American flags are precariously duct-taped to the poster. A red safety cone stands before the vehicle, probably intended to hold the precious parking space open for it. A painted promise to the voters is on the back window: “He will Deliver,” a pun perhaps linking the car’s former career to its present role. In spite of the political image building going on here, there are no voters in sight at this moment, and Silverman himself is nowhere to be seen, either. As for how this story will end, the only certainties are that Silverman should either win or lose.
19-MAY-2008
Saloon, Columbia, California, 2008
The only place still open in Columbia at 7:30 in the evening was the local saloon. There was just one person visiting the bar while I was photographing there. I moved behind him while he was chatting with the bartender and made this image. I am telling three stories at once here. The setting, the bar itself, is a historic site. It is decorated with humorous signage, advertisements, and a small memorial tucked in to the bottom of the mirror behind the bartender. The bartender, meanwhile, looks as if he has been around almost as long as his bar. He seems to be a good listener, and wears the cap of a volunteer fireman. Looking at the body language of the customer, we see a man eager to talk, learn, and share. He wears the hat of someone who spends a lot of time outdoors – and as it turned out, he only spent a few more minutes in this saloon than I did. I think of him more as a casual acquaintance, than as a customer. The last moments of sunshine warm the scene and give it a nostalgic tone. I made this image from the perspective of the next person to line up at the bar; when the guy in front of us has finished, it will be our turn to pass some time with both history and a living embodiment of it. And then each of us will have our own story to tell.
29-APR-2008
Rotunda, Old State Capitol, Phoenix, Arizona, 2008
I climbed to the highest gallery in the rotunda to link an arc of contemporary high school students standing in the gallery just below me to the architecture of their past. The arc of students becomes a symbol of the fluid movement of history itself, as, one by one, they flow out of the gallery towards their own future. Other students are meanwhile moving past the great seal of the state that anchors the image on the first floor. It is a story of passage, generation after generation.
29-APR-2008
House Chamber, Old State Capitol, Phoenix, Arizona, 2008
I took one of my tutorial students to photograph in the old state capitol building in Phoenix. While there, we had a chance to make some images of local high school students getting a first-hand look at Arizona’s history in the 100 year old House of Representatives chamber. The room is set up exactly as it looked when Arizona lawmakers created the state’s constitution in 1910. Each desk bears the name of a legislator. The students are listening to a guide, who tells them the tale as a story. I made this image to tell a story as well – the old chandelier, primitive desks, and huge flag draped on the wall offer a sense of both time and place. My high vantage point thrusts the desks into rhythmic diagonals, which blend the rows of students and long-gone legislators into a single entity. Even more important is how I’ve made the light play a significant role in this story. It starts strongly at the back of the room and then fades to darkness at the front, where history still holds its mysteries for these students.
27-MAR-2008
The other side of the Taj, Agra, India, 2008
Few foreign visitors take the time to visit the park just across the Yamuna River from the Taj Mahal. At sunset, only a handful of people were here to enjoy the view of its backside, while thousands of tourists were over on its front side. From here it looks like a back yard ornament -- an exotic guest cottage. This wideangle view of the Taj Mahal makes it seem just another part of Agra, no longer an enclosed monument unto itself. It becomes less of “wonder of the world” and more of what makes India India. That is the story I try to tell with this image.
21-MAR-2008
Bus stop, Jaipur, India, 2008
Travelers of every age crowd the dilapidated buses that form the backbone of India inter-city transportation system. I made this image in the old city, just outside of the City palace. The palace represents the historic and touristic India. Yet the real India is represented by the reality of dependence on a decaying intercity bus system such as this one. These adults are resigned to it. For the children, riding the bus, no matter how decrepit and tardy it might be, is a great adventure. This image tells both of those stories.
18-DEC-2007
Multitasking, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2007
A fast-food worker chats on her cell phone while cleaning her restaurant's front door. She is squeezed between reminders of her job -- a huge hamburger -- and the holiday enticement that stands just beyond the glass. The image tells the story of how people juggle their priorities. We can be sure she is not talking to someone about the job she is doing – she wipes that door with the practiced hand of an automaton, and her back is turned to the juicy hamburger on the wall. Since relatively few Vietnamese celebrate Christmas (the holiday is promoted here largely for western tourists) we can assume that she is not particularly enamored with Santa, either. My hunch is that she is talking to her boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, or significant other. Ultimately, each viewer will decide where her priorities rest.
04-JAN-2008
Duck pen, near Can Tho, Vietnam, 2008
These ducks are being raised, no doubt, to feed someone. But at this point, it is the duck that gets the meal. I layer this image, just as I would prepare chapters in a story. The first layer is the duck pen itself, filled with relatively complacent ducks, unmindful of their ultimate fate. A tree overlaps the duck pen, representing nature and growth and magically linking this layer to the last one. The second layer offers us two tubs and a bag, letting us know that these ducks are being well fed so that they will eventually make someone an appropriate feast. The last layer extends the scene as a fantasy – there is a lush landscape painted on the wall in the background, a painting that links directly to the tree that looms over the ducks in the pen. It offers an idyllic context to the image, an implied "Duck Paradise," sanitizing the inevitable ending of the story.
08-JAN-2008
Rural rush hour, Tan Chau, Vietnam, 2008
Tan Chau is a suburb of Chau Doc, a city not far from the Cambodian border. We were touring its dirt roads during our final evening in Vietnam and witnessed this rush hour exodus by motorbike. This tells the story of a community on the move, largely in one direction. The last light of the day warms the scene, and the dusty haze adds a healthy dose of atmosphere. The focal point of the picture is the masked lady in red, a phantom figure of authority. She wears a hat and rides a traditional bike. She follows a group of school children in uniform, also on bikes. Behind her are still more bikes, as well as a group of helmeted motorbike riders, most of them carrying passengers with legs flung out for balance. The line continues as far back as the eye can see, and carries us to the second most significant detail – a man riding a bike in the opposite direction. He moves against the flow, the lone dissenter. It is, in effect, the story of rural Vietnam – where life does not revolve around the automobile, and everyone rides a bicycle or motorbike to work or school. And most people seem content to follow the leader.
13-SEP-2007
Breakfast coming, Pingyao, China, 2007
Breakfast is a family event in this Pingyao household. All four members are playing a part. Even the father is here – an abstracted figure at the back of the image. I watched as the young girl in red, accompanied by her younger brother, gently carried the hot pot out the door and down a neighboring street. As she vanished around a corner she looked back at me and smiled. And that is how my story begins. Where to from here? What is in that little pot, and who gets to enjoy it? How do the family dynamics in this culture differ from our own? Such questions generate their own stories, all of them in the minds of my viewers.
18-SEP-2007
Conversation, Beijing, China, 2007
I thought that I had already made my last shot on this trip as our taxi crawled through Beijing's rush hour traffic on our final evening in China. I was wrong. We were stalled opposite a bus, and we saw in its window this conversation taking place between a young child and an older man, perhaps his grandfather. I can imagine the conversation – the little boy has asked a question about something he has just seen from this window, and the older man responds with thought, care, and love. The child listens – he is awestruck by what he hears. He may long remember this moment. It is a story based on the interplay of body language and expressions. I hope it brings back memories of similar conversations my viewers had with their elders when they were this child’s age. I know it does for me.
(My friend Tim May, shooting along side of me, made an image of this scene an instant later. It offers a
07-SEP-2007
Card game, Feng Jing, China, 2007
Feng Jing is an ancient Chinese city about an hours drive from Shanghai. Playing cards in the village square is a community event. Who is winning here? This question is at the heart of the story here. Read the expressions: the man reaching for the cards dominates the image – he brims with confidence, and the grinning fellow just behind him echoes his attitude. The three ladies, on the other hand, play it closer to the vest. The two eldest are the most incongruous players – they seem to come from another era, yet here they are, in the thick of things. The entire group accepts the presence of my camera on their table – they don’t speak a word of English, yet welcome it as just another player. Through my camera’s vantage point, all of you can share in this game.
14-SEP-2007
Eating dust, Pingayo, China, 2007
The streets of Pingyao contain as much dirt as brick. When a truck roars up one of its main streets, pedestrians and cyclists are covered with choking dust. The woman’s costume plays a big part in this story. Her white pants are, for the moment anyway, still pristine. Her bright red shirt is the focal point of the image. Yet all around her, the dust flies and everything but her seems dirty. Eyes shut, lips pursed, she makes the best of a bad morning. She seems used to it. Why else would she wear white pants while riding a bike here? Pingyao’s City Tower in the background lends context – we know this is Old China. Dust and dirt and time itself are all characters in this story of street life in Pingyao.
15-SEP-2007
Electrical hell, Beijing, China, 2007
Beijing is a city of striking contrasts. It now offers some of the world's most advanced architecture and technology. Its booming economy paces the world marketplace. Yet in its older neighborhoods, makeshift, tangled patchworks of electrical wires such as these symbolize just how far Beijing and China itself have yet to go. A closer look reveals satellite dishes and television antennas on the roof of the building in the background. I blend the tangled wires into them, and illuminate this paradox with a setting sun. All the elements of the story are in place. High technology, aging infrastructure, and a setting sun are incongruously juxtaposed in the heart of Beijing.
08-SEP-2007
Fruit stand, Shanghai, China, 2007
On a quiet, tree-lined street in Shanghai's 19th Century French Concession, fruit vendors wait for customers on a long summer evening. In this image, mood and atmosphere carry the story forward. Light and color draw the eye to the stand, an oasis of nature incongruously sailing upon a sea of concrete. The man at left displays the perks of ownership – he sits in a comfortable chair, while the other vendor forgoes a stool, and uses a tree for support. The story line is set, framing the question “where are the customers?” Yet one gets the feeling that they may be just around the corner. The stand has a permanent storefront, indicating longevity and prosperity.
14-SEP-2007
Gridlock, Pingyao, China, 2007
Cars are permitted to drive on only a few of Pingyao's ancient streets. The result is often gridlock. In this case, traffic, which included two horse-drawn carts full of collected sewage, was backed up for nearly a mile. Today meets yesterday here, and the results can be unpleasant. I use a 28mm wideangle lens here to punctuate the story – by stretching the traffic as much as I can, I make it seem even worse. The incongruity of the old carts, euphemistically known as honey-wagons, contrasted to cars and motorbikes, speaks the loudest here – much of provincial China is very much still caught between past and present. Just the fact that they still collect sewage here, called “night soil,” which is used as fertilizer, is telling. The story blends urban chaos with rural crudities, giving us a sense of ordinary life in much of China. (Ironically, such chaos had a direct effect on our own travel there – our van from Pingayo to a regional airport was caught in a similar traffic snarl, and we missed our flight to Beijing.)
17-SEP-2007
Guide, Great Wall of China, Mutianyu, China, 2007
Some travelers, such as this couple, feel more comfortable when accompanied by a guide. Yet looking at this image, I get the feeling that these people probably wish they were somewhere else at this moment. The Great Wall of China is a series of continual steep climbs and descents, climbed slowly and carefully. Their body language tells me they are trying to do just that, yet their guide strides ahead as if they were invisible, leaving them to struggle up the steep grade by leaning sideways and climbing upwards at the same time. The hills and towers in the background provide important context for this story, expressed as “street photography,” even if the street in question was built in 1368. As I say in the introduction to my street photography gallery (
http://www.pbase.com/pnd1/street_photography ) “street photography means telling stories, showing how people spontaneously react and interact in public places.” And that is exactly what is happening here. The couple reacts to the stress of traveling the Great Wall of China in one way. Their guide reacts in quite another. There is a gulf between this guide and his clients, aside from the distance he strays from them. His attire is very much in keeping with rural China -- an undershirt, baggy trousers, old hat. He may also be carrying the woman’s backpack in his hand, so he is acting as porter as well as guide. His gaze is steadfast. He has done this before and he will do it again. His clients, however, pay him no heed – they seem zoned out, struggling mightily to keep pace as they zigzag their way along the unforgiving humps of the Great Wall of China on a steamy, misty afternoon.
14-SEP-2007
Hiding, Pingyao, China, 2007
When I first made this image, I thought of it as a generational portrait of three Pingyao women. But when I examined it more closely later, a fourth person comes into play. The woman at right carries a bottle in one hand, letting us know that her other hand can only be holding the hand of a toddler. The child is there -- we can just see one of its feet peeking out behind the woman at center. Some photographs can tell a multitude of stories. It all depends upon how we hard we look at them. In this case, a group portrait becomes a story of the street, all because of three tiny details.
16-SEP-2007
Kite seller, Summer Palace, Beijing, China, 2007
Everything in the image helps tell the story of man selling kites on the bridge over Kunming Lake in the huge park surrounding Beijing’s Summer Palace. His expression is intense – he looks skyward. We don’t see the kite he is flying, but we see another one in his hand and others just like it at his feet. We know that he is not just a recreational kite flyer – he sells these kites, and demonstration is his most effective selling tool. The kites at his feet are not for him. They are for us. We even know that he is at an imperial palace – the lion on the post behind him is the imperial symbol. Even the artwork on the kites themselves tell a story – the graceful woman emblazoned on them recalls a time when a chair carrying the Empress of China was borne across this very bridge.
30-AUG-2007
Under cover, Singapore, 2007
We dodged rain squalls all day long in Singapore. This street person is dodging them as well, using an underpass to take cover. He smokes a cigarette and reads a newspaper, waiting for the rain to cease. Actually it did stop while we were in this underpass, and a tiny glimpse of sun very briefly warmed the wall at far right. And so a story unfolds, based on the small contrast in color between the de-saturated gray world surrounding the street person, and a warmer, more hopeful place presumably just up that ramp to the outside world. Viewers may well bring differing interpretations to bear on this story, which is why I made and post-processed the image in this way. For example, what role does the newspaper play here? Is he just passing the time, waiting for the rain to end? Or does he really care enough to want to know what is going on in the world, or in his community? The symbolic significance of the concrete block that stands between him and the ramp is also at issue here. Does it symbolize the barriers that keep him in the streets? Or is he willing and able to get up and step around those barriers, seeking a better life, if he wishes? And finally, he is looking down, not up. He does not seem to notice that the rain has stopped and the sun has momentarily, at least, bathed the wall at the end of tunnel with a trace of golden light. It makes us wonder if he, and indeed, other street people, are actually willing and able to get off the street and seek a “better” kind of life?
15-SEP-2007
In the hutong, Beijing, 2007
Parts of old Beijing are laced with narrow alleyways known as hutongs. This particular hutong was crowded with cyclists and pedestrians at day's end. A child sits amidst them, lost in play. An instant after I made this photograph, his mother darted into the street and pulled him to safety. This street photograph tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and even a country. The street is the living room, the playground, the roadway, and the lifeline of the community. It is a place where people know each other – some of them have probably seen this child at play here before and assume that his mother will soon be out to get him. That’s probably why nobody even looks at him, except for a brief glance from a boy who has nearly tripped on him. It is just the way Beijing works, and much of China along with it. This may be an urban crowd, but one senses a community within it.
31-AUG-2007
Wedding photograph, Pulau Ubin, Singapore, 2007
On our walk around Ubin Island, a rural suburb just off the shore of Singapore, we visited a home that seemed to be abandoned. Its rambling, overgrown grounds resembled an outdoor attic. I found this faded, soggy wedding picture on the ground behind the house, stacked underneath a dirty plastic garbage bag. The incongruously smiling bride and its idealized background could tell a story of unrealized dreams, a failed marriage, discarded memories, or even tragic loss. I de-saturated my own image in post processing, fading the picture to make it echo the faded colors of the wedding picture, still wearing it’s ornate frame. Other framed photographs, possibly of the same people, peek out from below – reinforcing the sad story of the wedding picture and garbage bag that overwhelm them.
03-SEP-2007
Ascension, Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2007
I photographed this dual scene within the interior of the Hindu temple at the base of a shrine known as the Batu Caves. It offers symbolic food for thought as it tells its spiritual story. I divide my image with a pillar. To the left is what appears to be a reception gallery or sanctuary, lined with larger-than-life figures of Hindu deities. Their reflections shimmer on the floor below them, while fans slowly turn overhead. A stairway rises on the right side of the pillar, gradually brightening as it carries the bare feet of an abstracted worshipper up to the next level. The image becomes a tapestry of spiritual symbolism, echoing the stories that fuel religious belief.
03-SEP-2007
Toothbrush drill, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2007
Muslims make up the majority of Malaysians. Primary students in the Muslim school start the day with mandatory toothbrush drills. I watched and waited as six young girls, each with their own toothbrush, cup and faucet, diligently practiced their dental hygiene. When one of them finished and turned away from the wall, I made this image. Each child shows us different body language. The one at far left holds her skirt up with one hand while washing her brush with the other. The girl next to her uses both hands to clean the brush. The two girls in the middle of the image are still brushing vigorously but one bends over while other stands upright. The fifth student is rinsing with her cup, while the last in line turns to show the world she is first to finish. Five of the six face the wall, which abstracts them. The sixth and last is the only one we see face to face. The story is a simple one – everyone works at their own pace, and each in their own way. This story defines a process. And this is how that process works.