02-APR-2006
Barley field, Baisha, China, 2006
A cow, a dog, and three people share the ordeal of preparing a field of barley. Most of the farms I saw in the Lijiang region appeared to be growing barley as a spring crop. Using a focal length of 350mm, I was able to reach out across the large field and bring my subject into the frame. The eye is drawn into the image by the furrows that begin at a wide dimension and gradually diminish in thickness as they slip into the distance. The lean of the final body, the foot in the air, add energy to the scene.
03-APR-2006
Shepherd, Baisha, China, 2006
Sheep thrive on the 8,000-foot high pastureland that surrounds Lijiang. The life of a shepherd is not easy – he is always outnumbered. I liked the fact that in this case, anyway, the black sheep outnumber the white. I made this image at about 150mm – the herd was almost upon me. A moment later I was surrounded with them and felt the shepherd looking over my shoulder. He wanted to see the picture.
25-OCT-2005
Street Vendor, Plazuela del Baratillo, Guanajuato, Mexico, 2005
As night comes to this tiny plaza in the center of Guanajuato, patrons line up for a quick snack from one the many food vendors who take over its sidewalks. This was a hand-held image, made without a flash at a shutter speed of 1/125th of a second. There was enough light from the one overhead bulb to illuminate the vendor, and partially light the customer who is eating his snack on the left. This image uses abstraction to simplify composition. Because I never use a flash, I can make use of natural shadows to suggest, rather than reveal information. The emphasis is on the vendor. He is well defined, while the two customers and the dark atmosphere add context for meaning.
05-SEP-2005
Window Washer, Zagreb, Croatia, 2005
Caught between the surge of Zagreb's morning rush hour traffic and a maze of banners and electrical wires, this fellow keeps the glass of commerce clear and clean. This kind of work is almost invisible – the people who keep the infrastructure operating often have no fixed place to work. Their jobs take them everywhere and anywhere. I loved the morning light and how it helped abstract this man. Instead of a specific person, the backlighting makes him into anyone and everyone. I hem him in with diagonals – the tilted building, the tram below him, the banner that hangs across the street, the maze of electrical wires. He works in a complex world, which he takes for granted. I made this image as he paused to study the effect of his job, fingers poised, ready to move on to the next window. He takes no heed of the huge beer advertisement across the street that acts as a reflector for the golden morning sun. It’s just another surface in a city of surfaces. But for my purposes it adds a splash of warm color to complement the blue of the sky, a vivid counterpoint to the shadowy world of the window washer.
16-JUL-2005
Caboose, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2005
The great age of the railroad has ended. Yet echoes of the railroad as a work place still can be heard, particularly in a town that had a famous railroad named after it. I found this abandoned caboose sitting in a rail yard near the old Santa Fe train depot. As a working tool, the caboose is a relic of the 19th century, a miniature house on wheels at the end of a freight train. This one has become a canvas for graffiti artists. It is hard to know where the past and present meet here – the original lettering on the caboose, signifying the name of the railroad, was a form of street art itself, a proclamation of identity and brand. Only today the brand has changed. This workplace is no more. The brand is submerged. The sides of this caboose have become a place solely for expression. My wideangle lens bends the image surrealistically. In the golden light of a summer evening, the graffiti looks more like street art and less like vandalism.
14-JUN-2005
Triple Take, Ghent, Belgium, 2005
I found this surprisingly incongruous juxtaposition of mannequins and window dressers in a Ghent storefront. Essentially, it’s simply a scene of two people in the workplace doing their everyday job – the row of slender headless mannequins, with their tiny behinds turned to face the street, are not amusing to them. Yet the multiple incongruities in this shot were very entertaining to our group of camera-toting tourists. One of the window dressers is almost completely abstracted. All we see are the dresser’s feet, and parts of each hand caressing a mannequin. The pot of colorful flowers breathing life into the very stiff mannequins adds a surreal touch to the scene. But the ultimate incongruity is the surprise of the window dresser on the ladder. She seemed bewildered to find herself the subject of a photograph. Perhaps if she could have seen what we were seeing, she might have smiled.
18-JAN-2005
Street Counter, Huay Xai, Laos, 2005
A local restaurant saves villagers a trip to the market by offering produce and sandwiches at its street-side counter. Convenience is a human value. It is something that people appreciate because it saves time and effort. Service is a human value as well. In this image, both of those human values are implied. I shoot here from inside the restaurant, looking out towards the woman on the street. The eye moves through the poised hands and intent expression of the clerk, through the food and implements, and finally into the patient face of the customer herself. She can walk up and down this street and do all of her shopping by never leaving the sidewalk. Such is life in a small Mekong River town.
Sandwich, Huay Xai, Laos, 2005
Laos was once part of French Indochina. These baguettes are a legacy of those long-gone days. They sit in a case, along with all the sandwich fixings, in the same street side counter we saw in the previous image. Only now instead of shooting from inside the restaurant, I am out on the street. I waited until an employee began to make a sandwich for a customer, and photographed her as if she, too, was inside the case. I’ve abstracted her down to just a face and an elbow, and framed her face in the baguettes. The previous image was made from the viewpoint of the server. This photo is made from the view of the customer. Whenever photographing people working with other people, you can usually switch perspectives to tell a different story
04-FEB-2005
Moving the Herd, Bagan, Myanmar, 2005
The evening cattle drive makes an appropriate foreground for sunset shots of Bagan's temples. Our tour guide knew this, and took me to places where I could get both cattle and temples into the same image. In this shot, made from the back of an ox-cart, I was able to photograph the woman driving the herd, with Thatbyinnyu Temple, the tallest in Bagan, as the backdrop. Shooting from this vantage point, the viewer becomes part of flow of action and that temple becomes part of the context for the image. This angle also abstracts the image, as does the back lighting and the cloud of dust that has settled over the scene. The focal point of the image is the worker herself, who is about to whack the end of the cow just in front of her with a stick. For this cattle driver, it is just another evening of work. For the viewer, however, it is a rare chance to vicariously experience a slice of Burmese life.
Time to Rest, Hmong Village near Pak Beng, Laos, 2005
Hmong farm workers carry heavy baskets such as these on their backs. Day's end brings a welcome respite. I caught this man at just the right moment – looking down, holding his back, about to enter his home. You don’t always have to actually show a person working in order to express an idea about that work. In this case, the hard work is already done. The baskets are all empty and on the ground. It’s his aching back that needs some care.
The warm quality of the late afternoon light sets a mood of closure that adds context to the scene.
21-JAN-2005
Monk Chores, Luang Prabang, Laos, 2005
A young monk was washing dishes, pails and bowls outside of a temple. I framed him with my telephoto as he worked, and took a number of photographs of him with his head down. Then he looked up, saw me, and stared into my camera for what seemed an eternity. I made this image, which is really an on-the job portrait. It could just as well be in my portrait gallery, but he belongs here as well, because he is in, what is for him, the work place. Monks may be spiritually oriented, but even they must work hard for their keep.
22-JAN-2005
Whitewash, Luang Prabang, Laos, 2005
While we were visiting the same temple that was the site of the previous image, teams of monks were dispatched to whitewash the old walls that surrounded the temple compound.
The incongruity of wall painters wearing orange robes was striking, and from this vantage point I was able to relate the painters to their wall and to their temple as well.