Evening light brings out the geometry of the traditional hats worn by Laotian field workers and farmers. These young women were aboard one of the ferry rafts that bridge the Mekong in this area -- known as the 4,000 Islands. I chose to shoot them from a position that abstracts detail and stresses shape and form, creating more of a symbolic image than a descriptive one. As such, this image expresses a mood that can only be described as timeless. These women are maintaining a tradition that goes back hundreds of years. They work the land and they sell its bounty. They stand as still as cultural icons in the warm evening light, wearing hats that not only shelter them from the merciless sun but also symbolize Southeast Asia’s agricultural tradition. They may not know it, but they honor time. For that is what tradition means.