15-FEB-2013
Gatekeeper, Georgia State Capitol, Atlanta, Georgia, 2013
While roaming the halls of Georgia’s capitol building, I photographed this story-telling moment through the open door of a legislator’s office. A member of the Georgia House of Representatives is at work in the inner office, abstracted by soft focus and a campaign sign that covers his face. The emphasis shifts to his aide, who acts as his gatekeeper in the outer office. I place her in sharp focus, and caught her just as she lifts her head from her work and gazes towards an approaching visitor, perhaps a constituent. She expresses a readiness to help, yet at the same time, seems somewhat inquisitive. She represents part of the privacy screen shielding the legislator from public distractions. He is screened by four layers of protection here – the wall of objects on the front of the aide’s desk, the aide herself, the books and poster behind her, as well as a massive wood and glass window, equipped with blinds.
15-FEB-2013
Face to face communication, Atlanta State Capitol, Atlanta, Georgia, 2013
Just prior to a press conference at Georgia’s Capitol building, journalists and politicians get a chance to communicate with each other, one on one. I photographed this group of eight people from an upper floor, capturing three sets of conversation. The image reveals a workplace functioning on several levels -- a news photographer greets an official with a hearty hand squeeze at left, a man seems to listen carefully to the ideas of the woman at the bottom, and another fellow gestures forcefully during a conversation at right. Waiting on the fringes of these three exchanges, two men stand by themselves, intent on reading the documents in their hands while patiently waiting their turn to converse.
08-FEB-2013
Lifeguard on break, The Venetian Pool, Coral Gables, Florida, 2013
I found this lifeguard seated on a bench at the bottom of one of this pool’s historic towers. I talked to him for a while, and then allowed him to go back to his thoughts as I continued to photograph. He seems to fit comfortably within his environment, which begins at the vintage lantern hanging from the ceiling in the upper left hand corner of the frame. The eye then moves diagonally down the steps, highlighted by the aged stucco base and the red hand railing. The diagonal flow of the railing is echoed by the curve of the arch that frames the stairwell. The lifeguard does not look at us – his mind seems to be elsewhere at the moment. His red trunks, the blue shutter, and the golden reflected light combine to infuse the image with primary colors.
15-AUG-2012
Premiere, Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, California, 2012
This theatre stands at the very epicenter of the Hollywood legend. The footprints, handprints, and autographs of more than 200 movie stars from 1927 through the present day stand in its courtyard. It has hosted three Oscar ceremonies, and dozens of premieres. The day I visited, the sidewalks in front of the theatre and across the street from it were thronged with workers, trucks, lights, and tourists. A major action film was premiering that night, and I was able to compare the labors of light-rigger to the lethal workers on the movie poster behind him. This image is rich in contrasts – the rigger grapples with a spotlight, while the actors in the poster clutch weapons of mass destruction. The actors are grim, while the rigger seems to be enjoying his work. He is a dimensional figure, a colorful figure awash in light and shadow, while the gunners on the wall behind him are flat -- one dimensional iconic figures.
15-AUG-2012
Restoring the El Capitan, Hollywood, California, 2012
The workers are small in this image, when compared to the huge marquee below them, and the building behind them, which virtually fills the frame. This scale contrast makes the point here – the men are small, but the job seems huge. The glittering marquee, which has already been restored, also contrasts to the drab curtain covering the face of the building itself, which is currently undergoing restoration. The sign at upper left. along with one of Hollywood Boulevard's many palm trees, adds context.
17-NOV-2011
Asleep, Jaffa, Israel, 2011
This huge store is just one of many in Jaffa’s flea market district.
The aisles were empty, and this shopkeeper has fallen sound asleep. He is so relaxed that his heel is slipping out of one of his shoes. I turned my 24mm wideangle lens vertically to stress an aisle that never seems to end. It is lined with richly colored clothing and jewelry, and topped with a translucent blue ceiling, which contrasts to the crimson floor. There were no customers here that I could see, allowing him to quietly lower his head and slumber.
14-NOV-2011
Tomato stall, Aqaba, Jordan, 2011
In market photography, I will often look for the light first, and then shoot whatever it may illuminate. That proved to be the case here. This shopkeeper was checking the quality of his tomatoes, and was moving back and forth among the crates, checking them from different angles. It was not the product itself that attracted me to this situation. I was drawn instead to the striking effect of the theatrical light coming from a nearby window. It illuminates his face, stressing the intensity of his delicate and careful task. I also liked the soft texture of his shirt as well as the soft colors of the canvas backdrop that is partially folded back behind him. It is an image that speaks of care, diligence, and experience.
26-DEC-2010
Swamped, Belem, Brazil, 2010
Most photographers prefer to work in good weather and good light. However bad weather can offer advantages to photographers as well. I saw this man treading water during a rain-squall next to his boat at the mouth of the Amazon River. He was holding a tool in his hand, and seemed to be hard at work on his boat as the surging waters of the Amazon delta seem about to swamp him. It is an image about not only work, but also risk. The job at hand may be simple maintenance, yet given this situation, it may not be as simple as it seems. This image is all about man's skill and persistence in the workplace, while dealing with the force of nature itself.
30-DEC-2010
Sweeper, St. Michael’s Cathedral, Bridgetown, Barbados, 2010
Protected by a white mask, this sweeper is cleaning the balcony of this Anglican church, built in 1789, the year that George Washington was elected as the first President of the United States. It replaced an original church built in 1665, and destroyed by a hurricane in 1780. Interestingly enough, Washington himself may well have attended services in the original St. Michael’s Cathedral – his only visit outside the US was to Barbados in 1750. (He visited Bridgetown with his half brother Lawrence Washington, spending four months there.) This image contrasts the deteriorating interior of the old church with the effort of this sweeper to keep it tidy and clean. The scene is illuminated with backlight, coming from the windows behind her. The spindles on the railings behind and in front of her suggest the work that she has done, and the work that yet remains.
30-DEC-2010
Cooperation, Bridgetown, Barbados, 2010
Using a 24mm wideangle focal length, I contrasted our cruise ship to the pilot boat docked next to it in Bridgetown’s harbor. A harbor is a workplace, and cooperation among its ships is essential for safety. The large boat depended upon the small boat to navigate through the harbor to the pier. The cruise ship is massive, high, and white, while the pilot boat is small, low, and orange. Yet from this perspective, the mast of the pilot boat incongruously seems to rise higher than the huge ship. The cruise ship holds 700 passengers and a crew of 450, while the pilot boat is operated by very few. I also liked the contrast between the turquoise water and the deep blue sky. The diagonal thrust of the pier draws the deep into the image, emphasizing the comparative features.
30-DEC-2010
Fish cutters, Municipal market, Bridgetown, Barbados, 2010
The busy hands and attentive attitudes of these fish cutters express the intensity of their work, as well as their concentration and focus. Gutting piles of fresh fish is a difficult job, yet here it seems a task enveloped in the repeating rhythms of the body language. They must pay attention to those sharp knives they use, as well as somehow deal with the monotony of the task and its attendant aroma. The focal point of the image is the backlighted profile of the woman in the foreground. I liked the negative space crackling between her face and the edge of her apron. I also liked the way the red canister, red background, and red scarf create a red triangle around the other worker, providing separation and giving him his own space in the image.
01-JAN-2011
Teamwork, gangway crew, St. Barts, French West Indie, 2011
As our cruise ship was leaving St. Barts, I leaned over my cabin’s balcony to catch a crew of men dismantling a gangway. As the blue waters of the Caribbean swirl just below them, they function as an expert team. It is a drill they know by heart – each man has his place on the steps, which rise towards the leader who hoists a ladder over his head. Teamwork is an essential component of any workplace, and that is the key to this task.
30-DEC-2010
Reconstruction, Bridgetown, Barbados, 2010
A net, drape, and scaffold envelopes an old Bridgetown bank under reconstruction. I abstract it as a black and white industrial tapestry, a symbol of renewal and the labor that goes along with it.
31-DEC-2010
Sea Wall, Dominica, French West Indies, 2010
The huge earthmover, working on a new sea wall protecting Dominica’s coastline, frames what seemed to be a construction supervisor within its massive arc. It is a workplace image of man and machine, based on scale incongruity and primary colors. I liked the way the separate blue and green colors of the Caribbean fill the foreground, leading the eye to the yellow machine and the man standing below it. Two other men, slightly obscured and wearing blue shirts, work just behind the machine, while others take things easy in the background.
26-DEC-2010
Refreshment, Belem, Brazil, 2010
The streets of steamy Belem, near the mouth of the Amazon River, comprise the workplace for this balloon vendor. Here he retreats to the shadows to savor a cold drink of soda. I build this image around its colors – the vendor’s brilliant red clothing, the pastel balloons, and the yellow brick road holding an approaching child. The shadowy figure is invisible to the vendor. We wonder if he may soon become a customer?
07-SEP-2010
Window cleaner, Mission Beach, San Diego, California, 2010
While others come to Mission Beach to relax and play, some earn their livelihoods here. This man washes the windows of an elaborate beach house along the Boardwalk. I create an expressive image out of such a literal subject by emphasizing his reflected image in the window, as much as the man himself. The evening sun illuminates his arm and the back of his neck, as well as some of the clothing he wears. His intense expression, and well as the tool he uses, comes through in the silhouetted profile visible in the reflection. I compose the image as a study in repeating geometric rhythms. The diagonal thrust of the legs is repeated in the diagonal line of the ladder and the diagonal reflection. The repeating vertical thrusts of the window separators carry us through the image, as well.
30-AUG-2010
Quick build, Mission Beach, San Diego, California, 2010
This house, under construction during the two-week period while I was visiting this beach community, did not exist when I arrived, and seemed almost finished when I left. The construction workers who built this house worked quickly and constantly to get the job done. I found two of them working on the roof early in the construction phase, and using my long telephoto lens, photographed their efforts from a neighboring street. In mid morning, the scene was backlighted, abstracting the image for me and making it more symbolic than descriptive. I liked the way the light softly illuminates the framework of the building, making it seem to glow. The clouds in the pale sky echo the rounded shape of the tree leaves that seem to be blessing the scene. The utility poles and wires embrace the construction site – nothing gets done without the power they provide. Yet the key to the idea itself -- the speed of construction -- is the body language of one of the workers. One of the men hunches forward as he carries a piece of lumber towards the framework, while his colleague bends over behind him to pick up a tool or materials. There is a sense of urgency in the body language of the man carrying the lumber that makes him the focal point around which the entire image revolves.
09-JUL-2010
Laying cement, New York City, New York, 2010
There is a lot going on in this picture – a crew of workers is laying fresh cement at a construction site, beneath a towering backdrop of draping and concrete. I use a vertical frame to stress the high backdrop here, and made about twenty or thirty images, mostly on burst mode, of the interactive body language here. I chose the shot that best tells the story. The man in the center is the focal point, not only because of his central position, but also because he raises his arm as a gesture of leadership. He also holds a shovel in his other hand, which complements another shovel held by the man in the green vest at right. The cement is being shoveled out of a container decorated as a shark, which adds an aggressive touch to the image.
13-JUL-2010
Heavy lifting, New York City, New York, 2010
This man was moving boxes and bags from a truck, while other workers supported his efforts. At this moment, he stands with a heavy bag in hand, waiting for someone to come and take it from him. Meanwhile, the man at lower right, who should be helping him, is looking elsewhere at this moment, an incongruity in time and space. I frame the scene in softly focused trees, which add an incongruous park-like atmosphere to this midtown Manhattan street scene.
17-JUL-2010
Careful steps, New York City, New York, 2010
I noticed two maintenance men at work on air conditioning equipment on a neighboring apartment building roof and followed their exertions for a while from my window. I made this image at the moment one of them takes a ladder to a lower level. A mistake could mean a dangerous fall – he carefully supports himself by grabbing a metal bar and taking each step very slowly. At this moment, his rigidly extended arm echoes the diagonal thrust of the entire image, which flows from upper right down to lower left. The image is all about geometry, with rectangular elements and horizontal surfaces arrayed behind them and diagonal energy flowing between these men in the vivid blue shirts.
15-JUL-2010
Movers, New York City, New York 2010
I use the open door of a moving truck as the stage for the story here. The man lifting a carton within the truck is abstracted in silhouette. He is framed by a tree at left, and by the repeating rhythms of the vertical lines on the inside of the open door. I abstract the name of the movers by showing only a part of the truck at right, but the remaining star spangled decoration suggests a patriotic motif. The final touch is the carton already resting on the ground. We can’t tell if it is arriving or leaving, but we do know what is probably being moved here.
21-JUL-2010
Potter, Bennington, Vermont, 2010
In this photo of a potter shoveling clay around the floor below her workbench, it is the working environment, rather than the worker herself, that tells the story. While she wears a blue dress, the dusty colors of her smock and most of her surroundings convey the nature of the materials she works with and produces. I layer the image with racks of bricks and trays, and even a wheelbarrow. A fan keeps her cool, while a company poster and a calendar add visual context. Meanwhile, the clay product she is working on sits before us on its pedestal, looking very much like a chocolate cake waiting to be served.
10-JUL-2010
Window cleaner, New York City, New York, 2010
I built this image of a man cleaning a window in a New York City apartment building door around a series of frames within frames. The bars offer an initial frame, then the door itself, and finally the white decoration around it. The nearby window in a brick wall echoes the other rectangles here. I used my burst shooting mode, and chose the moment when he peered through the glass with one eye from behind his white cloth. The work seems to be routine – he probably cleans fingerprints off this piece of glass every day. We get a sense of that repetition here – he seems to know the job by heart and can probably do it in his sleep. The repeating frames within frames here intensify that feeling for us.
13-JUL-2010
Street performer, Union Square Park, New York City, New York, 2010
A street performer, spattered in gold paint, takes a break beneath a sequined fabric. He wears an “I love New York” shirt, but at the moment, his loyalties are rooted in sleep. The fabric abstracts him, yet its embellishments complement the golden arm that is left exposed to the crowds that surge past him. His performance – and that’s what this image is all about – is temporarily and incongruously on hold.
04-JUN-2010
Pedicab, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2010
This man transports tourists around Santa Fe by foot power. This image illuminates the challenge of his task. At the moment his pedicab is empty, and there seems to be no one on the early morning streets. I capture him in silhouette, wearing a straw hat to shield his face from the summer sun. The sun bathes the adobe structure behind him, a local hotel, in golden light. He rides off into the shadows to find his customers.
02-JUN-2010
Breather, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2010
I found this man unloading heavy material from a truck parked on the streets of Santa Fe. It is evening, and I have the feeling that he had been working for hours in the hot sun. He grasps his bright red cart, wearing heavy, well-used gloves on his hands. As he stepped back beneath an arcade for a breather, I made this portrait of him. I exposed for his white shirt, causing his face to fall into the cool shadows, making him anonymous, and symbolic of all who earn a livelihood as laborers.
04-JUN-2010
To work, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2010
As the sun rises, this neighborhood stirs to the tread of maintenance crews on their way to work. I caught this abstracted ladder bearer as he walks among the early morning shadows. The slats in the ladder rhythmically echo the slats in the decorative window treatment behind him.
07-JUN-2010
Maintenance man, Durango and Silverton Railroad, Durango, Colorado, 2010
As the sun sets over Durango, this maintenance man is still on the job in the yards of the Durango and Silverton railroad. I photographed him at this time of day because the play of light and shadow is at its strongest. The setting sun illuminates his figure as he stands near the door of the maintenance and supplies coach, throwing a dramatic shadow on its red wall. The shadow contrasts to his relaxed body language. It leans forward, implying anxiety. The coach itself seems to have been in service for a long time, and looks like it could do with a bit of maintenance itself.
07-JUN-2010
Locomotive at rest, Durango and Silverton Railroad, Durango, Colorado, 2010
This railroad hauls tourists between Durango and Silverton every day. Its steam locomotives are historic pieces of equipment and usually live in this barn. Its multiple doors swing open to welcome the well-used locomotives come evening. I made this image by shooting through an open window in the back of the barn, and caught this locomotive, its copper fittings gleaming in the dusk, at rest.
28-MAY-2010
Atomic Power Plant, Atomic City, Idaho, 2010
The world’s first peacetime use of nuclear power occurred when the US government switched on an experimental reactor near Arco, Idaho in 1951. Arco became the first city in the world to be lit by atomic power four years later. I spent a few hours touring the plant housing this reactor. I deliberately underexposed this image, abstracting some of the piping in the plant as a mysterious and haunted reminder of this event. By showing less, I’ve tried to say more.
12-MAY-2010
Laborer, Scottsdale Civic Plaza, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2010
This man is spending hours creating piles of dirt as he works on a turf renovation project in this city park. I backlight him, turning him into a silhouetted abstraction. There were at least a dozen workers doing similar things, and I make him symbolically represent all of their labors. By using my camera’s multiple frame “burst” mode, I was able to shoot twenty or thirty pictures of him within a minute or so, and caught him at the moment his thrusting shovel hangs poised above the dirt, and the lean of his legs rhythmically repeat the lean of the shadows on the wall at far right. The long shadows imply the symbolic presence of a sundial that marks the hours of work that has been done and has yet to be done. That symbolic sundial marks the end of the four level wall behind him, preceded by four repeating bushes.The wall carries the horizontal flow of action across the entire frame.
12-MAY-2010
Gardener, Scottsdale Civic Plaza, Scottsdale, Arizona, 2010
This gardener is lost in his work, engulfed by the foliage that creates his livelihood. I abstract the image by waiting for him to lower his head as he prunes a plant. His hat, the focal point of the image, covers his face and makes this image a symbol of work itself, rather than a portrait of a particular worker. He wears white work gloves that are thrust into deep shadow, yet still softly glow in the reflected light of his venue.
15-OCT-2009
Restaurant worker, Istanbul, Turkey, 2009
I saw this woman at work in the window of a restaurant, preparing some kind of local favorite. I made several images of her at work, but much preferred the thoughtfulness reflected in this photograph. She has just moved a slice on to the black tray – her hand is still in motion. The other hand is completely relaxed. Head covered, and wearing a company jacket, she appears to very far away at the moment. The last slice is out of sight and out of mind.
18-OCT-2009
Steam table, Kiev, Ukraine, 2009
A Ukrainian cafeteria worker, surrounded by hot lights and clouds of steam, is caught in a moment of decision. A crowd of customers waits just beyond my frame for their food and she is the person who must deliver it, and deliver it now. The image is all about pressure in the workplace, and how people respond under that pressure.
23-OCT-2009
It’s a wrap, Bucharest, Romania, 2009
Three construction workers are dwarfed by an enormous drape that describes the ornamental structure it is hiding. Bucharest is restoring many of its 19th and early 20th century buildings and this is one of them. This image is rich in incongruity – the drape is so much larger than the workers who stand below it, and the way it is folded back is almost a visual pun.
14-OCT-2009
Pigeon feed, Istanbul, Turkey, 2009
I used an 18mm wideangle focal length to stretch the frame, embracing a multitude of pigeons that make Istanbul’s New Mosque their home. The man in the middle of it all sells pigeon feed to any one who might want to keep them happy. The image is bizarrely incongruous – seldom is one man seen surrounded by so many birds. He seems totally oblivious to his attraction. The wideangle lens has distorted his chair so that it seems to lean crazily, an effect that only increases the bizarre nature of this image.
(After posting this image, my friend Tim May, who was standing next to me while I made this photograph, tells me that this man is blind. This additional context brings a new dimension of meaning to this image -- he can't see either the birds or his customers, so he must use his other senses, particularly his hearing, to sense what is happening around him.)
15-OCT-2009
Street market, Istanbul, Turkey, 2009
Istanbul’s street markets are chaotic jumbles of people and merchandise on the move. I tried to capture the flavor of one such street here, focusing on a man determinedly pulling a huge load of bales in a wagon, very much as men have done in Istanbul for a thousand years. There is tension in his face and arms, and that tension is echoed by the tension in the plastic bag being dragged through the foreground. The head of an intense young man adds additional context – he seems to be pushing the cart from behind.
21-OCT-2009
Ringing up the bill, Bucharest, Romania, 2009
This traditional Romanian restaurant, which has been in business for over a century, shows its past, present and future in this image. The stained glass windows and richly carved staircases and balconies speak of an age now lost in nostalgia. The crowds of people and rushing waiters express its current status as successful dining establishment. The waitress punching up the bill on a sleek computer links the technology of today to a business steeped in tradition. A 14mm wideangle focal length gathers it all together in a single frame.
19-OCT-2009
No urgency, Kiev, Ukraine, 2009
I was drawn to the fruity colors on the poster on this refreshment stand and then saw the woman staring at me out of that door, looking as if she had eternity on her hands. And then I saw the sign – she is most likely a rest room attendant. And when there are no customers, she seems to have little but time on her hands. It is an image of a workplace where the work is yet to come.
22-OCT-2009
Toil, Bucharest, Romania, 2009
Hefting a crowbar, this woman is breaking up a concrete sidewalk in a churchyard. Candles glow softly behind her as she bends to her task. She works persistently and steadily at a job that in many places would be done by men. It is the 21st century, but this image could just as well been made, had there been cameras, at any time in Bucharest’s thousand-year history. I do not show the work at hand. I show instead how that work must feel.
29-SEP-2009
Car rental clerk, Jasper railway station, Canada, 2009
We spent a lot of time waiting in the Jasper train station for our train from Jasper National Park to Vancouver – it was running an hour late. For some, a train station is also a workplace, and there were a number of opportunities for me to make images of people on the job. This rental car clerk has just finished dealing with a long line of passengers and finally finds a moment of rest. I saw it in her eyes – she seems to look at no place in particular as she covers her lower face with her hand. The passengers coming through this station are almost all on vacation. Meanwhile, others, such as this clerk, must be there to serve their needs.
01-OCT-2009
A professional, Granville Island, Vancouver, Canada, 2009
I met this newswoman as she was shooting a video of a booth in Granville Island’s Public Market. I approached with my camera, and she turned to look at me over her shoulder. I could see the questions form on her brow as I made this shot, and I explained that I was simply making images of life in the market. She said, “I hope I didn’t break your camera,” and continued her own project. Her camera is a lot bigger than my camera, yet she handled it as if it was a toy. She was a professional, doing the work of a professional. It comes through in this image.
24-SEP-2009
Office worker, Toronto, Canada, 2009
I saw this woman studying some papers just outside of her office building in downtown Toronto. I was struck by the frequency of red in this scene – her lipstick, the flowers, and even the zipper on her plastic folder seemed to belong to each other. I waited until she picked up the folder and put it and the purse on her lap, bringing the red zipper into line with the flowers on either side of it. The image humanizes the business world and those who serve in it.
24-SEP-2009
Squeegee artist, Toronto, Canada, 2009
By shooting this window washer through a soapy glass door, I am able to abstract him and make his form become part of the job itself. The early morning light comes from him, illuminating the swirls of soapy water, and casting the shadow of the squeegee itself upon the task. The swirls symbolize energy, and that is precisely what he brings to this task.
03-OCT-2009
Making movies, Vancouver, Canada, 2009
While walking through the port of Vancouver, I stepped right into the middle of a movie set. The grips were setting up lights to illuminate the streets just outside of the city’s new convention center. Using a 400mm telephoto lens, I photographed this particular grip from a good distance away for about fifteen minutes as he arranged the position of the huge lamps. His expression and body language changed repeatedly as his task became ever more demanding. This particular image communicates through tension, an emotion that is often found in the workplace. His lips are tightly pursed as he leans into the lamp. He works within deep shadows, while highlights outline one side of his face and arm. These shadows abstract the scene, and add a mysterious mood to his machinations, intensifying the emotional content of the image.
20-JUL-2009
Roadside call, Salem, Massachusetts, 2009
The mobile phone puts an office in every car. Only this fellow is smart enough to pull off and park before making his call, enabling him to concentrate on his conversation instead of diverting attention from his driving. His body language expresses a relaxed confidence, as he holds his phone to his ear with one hand, and points a cigar over the roof of the car with his other hand. One window of his car reflects an abstraction of his shirt, while another echoes his call. He demonstrates consideration for others in two ways here – he smokes outdoors, and he avoids a dangerous driving while calling situation.
23-JUL-2009
Fisherman, Gloucester, Massachusetts, 2009
This fisherman navigates Gloucester harbor by rowboat, throwing his whole body into his work. Many of Gloucester’s fishermen came to the US from Sicily, accounting for the Italian names and the frequent use of both Italian and American flag decorations on the boats.
29-JUL-2009
Courier, New York City, New York, 2009
I followed the course of this FedEx courier as he pushed a bin full of deliveries up the slope of Murray Hill in midtown Manhattan. As he reached the crest of the hill at Park Avenue and 34th Street, I made this image of him, using a fairly wide aperture and a long telephoto lens. I was able to focus selectively on him, using the crowds around him as softly focused context. The purple in his gloves and uniform also help distinguish him from others. The flow of such couriers from building to building are an indication of the pace and intensity of business in the heart of New York City.
21-JUL-2009
Multi-tasking, Ipswich, Massachusetts, 2009
This woman, who works for a seafood company, juggles many tasks simultaneously. She handles various administrative matters, moving back and forth between various buildings, and in this case, does not even stop to sit down or remove the hood of her sweatshirt as she takes a call in her office. Her costume and my vantage point abstract her – we don’t know who she is, but we can certainly appreciate the situation she finds herself in. The overflowing desk, computer monitor, and full shelf in the background all add context.
23-JUL-2009
Deep-sea fishing boat captain, Gloucester, Massachusetts, 2009
I made this portrait of a deep-sea fishing boat captain as he starts up his engines and begins to back away from the dock. He is cautious and skillful – he plays the controls as if they were like a musical instrument. It is a large boat, full of tourists and fishermen, and his expression tells us how seriously he takes his job.
22-JUL-2009
Dry dock, Gloucester, Massachusetts, 2009
I only show the arm and hand of the dry dock worker here, yet the tension in the fingers and taut muscles in the arm tell a story of skill, strength and experience. There is also tension crackling in the space between the back of the rudder and the front of the stern. Will it fit? And will it work? I want this image to ask such questions of my viewers.
21-JUL-2009
Cleaning up, Gloucester, Massachusetts, 2009
This man, who works in a seafood plant, takes great care to make sure the floors are spotless. Sanitation is a high priority in such places, and we can sense the diligence and care he brings to the task. The blue plastic gloves add context for such a job, while my close-up vantage point stresses character through the detail in his face.
23-JUL-2009
Trawler, off Gloucester, Massachusetts, 2009
Thousands of New England fishermen have perished at sea – such trawlers as this one are among the most dangerous of workplaces. I offer a sense of that danger here – this trawler rides the swells of the Atlantic in the fog, miles out to sea. Its nets are spooled under canvas, and a fierce wind whips at the flag on the stern. The lone figure seems to be entirely at mercy of nature here, and indeed he is.
21-JUL-2009
Production line, Ipswich, Massachusetts, 2009
I photographed this woman working in a fish processing plant at a fairly fast shutter speed of 1/00th of a second. She was quickly transferring fish from a tub to a conveyor belt. Her hands were moving so fast they are blurred, even at 1/100th of a second. The movement is from right to left, flowing horizontally across the frame. Such horizontal action is easier to blur than action coming towards the camera. If I had photographed her from the front, there would have been less blur at this fast a shutter speed. I also like the role of color in this image -- her blue gloves echo the blue tub, carrying a flow of color across the bottom of the image along with the blur. Meanwhile, the diagonal angle of the machine behind her echoes the angle of her arm holding the fish. Production line work can be demanding and repetitious. This image tells us why.
20-JUL-2009
Restaurant, Gloucester, Massachusetts, 2009
The man who runs this restaurant is seen at his counter, lost in his thoughts. For him, early morning is a quiet time, a time to reflect – at least on this day. This environmental portrait also tells us more about his workplace. Reader’s Choice awards line the wall behind him. We learn what he serves, as well – the list of specials and the two decorative fish next to it add important context. Finally, we see an employee standing in the doorway behind him. He holds a cup of coffee in his hand and looks as if he, too, could be waiting for more work to do.
29-JUL-2009
Bus driver, New York City, New York, 2009
His workplace is electric powered and dedicated to quality control. He has probably been driving buses through Manhattan’s chaotic and gridlocked traffic for many years, and seems incongruously relaxed. I framed him within my own frame by shooting him through his door at a bus stop. The softly focused decals on the side of the bus add context.
22-JUL-2009
Scrub, Gloucester, Massachusetts, 2009
This man was renovating a boat in drydock. He was scrubbing down the hull, preparing it for a paint job. I used an "average" shutter speed of 1/60th of a second here. His action is moving horizontally across the frame. His left hand firmly holds on to the edge of the boat, remaining sharp, while his right hand suggests energetic movement. It is hard physical work, and the blur brings such effort home. The man seems linked to the boat both physically and aesthetically -- his maroon shirt is similar in hue to the boat's hull.
15-JUN-2009
Commercial fisherman (1), Fort Bragg, California, 2009
During a visit to this small Northern California coastal town, I had a chance to photograph a group of commercial fishermen unloading thousands of fish from a trawler moored in its harbor. One of them was clearly in charge. Although he worked along with them, he often stood back to see what was happening as a manager would see it. I photograph him here with one hand resting on the shovel he had been using to guide a pile of fish along a conveyor belt, and the other hand poised over a power switch controlling the machinery. It is a portrait of authority, a man in control. The reading glasses riding up on his forehead offer a humanizing touch that softens the intensity of his stern gaze. He has been in this business for a long time, and although the gaze may seem grim, he also comes through as a tough, shrewd hardworking boss who knows his trade and his crew inside and out. This image does what a workplace portrait should do, expressing the character and personality of this man instead of just describing his appearance.
15-JUN-2009
Commercial fisherman (2), Fort Bragg, California, 2009
A few moments after I made the previous image, the fisherman gave the thumbs up sign to a colleague, a universal symbol of validation. He is a tough boss, but he is quick to affirm the accomplishments of his crew. I shoot over the shoulder of the man he is talking to here. We can make out a softly focused yellow shovel held by a red glove. That is enough to put the viewer into the picture. It is the viewer that gets the thumbs up sign here, as well as the crew member.
22-JUN-2009
Café, Lake Quinault, Washington, 2009
Customers at this café are confronted with many choices. But those who work here do not have the luxury of choice. They must do the jobs expected of them. Those jobs seem challenging – there were only two people working here, and they both appear in this 24mm wideangle image. We see a cook through the window at the left, and an order clerk standing in the doorway at right. She stands before a floor fan, resting her hand on the door frame -- the body language of someone who has put in a hard day. Between them stands a blizzard of written communication – menus, instructions, warnings and advertisements surround a soda machine and other self-service items. Lake Quinault is a small resort town in the Olympic State Forest, and this small café, in the back of the local general store, seems to be a popular local hangout.
19-JUN-2009
Preparation, Jacksonville, Oregon, 2009
I was walking down the main street of this historic town when I saw a woman diligently painting something on the floor of her company’s display window. Perhaps she was painting the floor itself? It was hard to know, since I was standing across the street at the time. I photographed her for about fifteen minutes as she worked. In this, my favorite image of her, she paints with intense concentration. She never noticed me. Her body language is graceful – I like the way she holds the brush in one hand, and uses the other hand as a bracket to support the rest of her. Whatever she may be painting, there is obviously pride in authorship here. The window appears to me as a stage. Hanging flowers on one side, a civic banner on the other, lend a celebratory touch. Even the drapes play a role – they seem like a curtain waiting to descend. I felt like clapping as I moved on.
22-JUN-2009
Pilot, Astoria, Oregon, 2009
The sign on the boat provides workplace context for the man coming down the ladder here. The image uses color to bring it to life – the reds and yellows of the ladder, the red shirt, and the world of brown and green awaiting the pilot energize the image. Even the old tires acting as bumpers on the boat add a bit of red and black, echoing the colors of the man’s shirt. We don’t see his face, but see his effort, and we know where he is headed.
26-JUN-2009
Glassmakers (1), Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington, 2009
I found this shadow of a fist holding a glassblowing rod seemingly etched upon a golden table. It is a powerful workplace symbol of a complex and difficult art. A team of artglass makers provides live demonstrations whenever this museum is open.
26-JUN-2009
Glassmakers (2), Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington, 2009
A team of artglass makers confronts a decision. The man with the lettered t-shirt is the artist, while the other three must execute his art. An unfinished orb of glass rests on its rod while the group decides what comes next. It is a common workplace moment – the decision making process is at the very heart of matter.
26-JUN-2009
Glassmakers (3), Museum of Glass, Tacoma, Washington, 2009
The museum has turned the workplace into a theatre – you can even watch the performances stream live on the museum’s web site during operating hours. I made this image of glassmaking as performance. I’ve abstracted one of the artists by shooting down on her from an overhead vantage point. Instead of showing who she is, I try to say what she is, and how she feels about what she does. I pressed my shutter button as she brought her body forward to study a tiny piece of decorate art glass, still on the glassblower’s rod. Her hand holds the rod as a violist would hold a bow – with intention and strength. My image bonds her to her task – my composition has her array of tools flowing directly into her bowing form. It is if she is taking a curtain call, while still working.
12-NOV-2008
Making bricks, Tozeur, Tunisia, 2008
The flow of wet clay, kneaded by swiftly powerful hands, makes a powerful image of a man at work. I used my camera’s shutter priority program to set a fast shutter speed of 1/500th of a second to catch the action. The worker’s right hand is moving so fast that even at that shutter speed, there remains a hint of blur in it, an effect that charges the image with energy. The heavily textured clay-covered skin lends further incongruity.
09-NOV-2008
Closing time, Kairouan, Tunisia, 2008
This man is closing up his shop for the evening. There is a strange green light beyond the doors, framing a room full of equipment and materials. A star and crescent, the symbol of Tunisia, draws the eye and adds important context. The man is about to leave – his moving legs and feet become a mass of blur. (And yes, that’s Nike logo on his hat.)
08-NOV-2008
Labor intensive, Sousse, Tunisia, 2008
This man is restoring the exterior of a building in historic walled medina of Sousse, where some of the structures date back to the eighth and ninth centuries. He seemed to be exhausted. The morning light allows me to reveal only the highlights of his face as he bends for a moment to gather his strength. Just as important is the shadow that nearly touches his elbow – it doubles his response, magnifying the toll that this work takes from his body.
13-NOV-2008
Early to work, Tozeur, Tunisia, 2008
Every now and then I find an expressive travel image only a few feet away from my own hotel room. That’s what happened here. I was on my way to breakfast (camera in hand, of course) and saw a housekeeper walking past the windows of the hotel’s glass enclosed indoor swimming pool. The windows were dripping in condensation and made opaque, a perfect target for the morning sun that illuminates the window from behind. I was able to contrast the dogged body language of the housekeeper -- head down, striding to work, and dragging her equipment behind her -- to the golden promise of the new day.
12-NOV-2008
Date harvest, Tozeur, Tunisia, 2008
This man is standing barefoot in a palm tree, high above the ground. He is gathering dates in a Sahara oasis, just outside Tozeur. He works with utter confidence in bare feet. He shows no sign of fear or caution. He grasps the palm frond, knowing that it will not break and send him to his death. Although it may appear that I am up in the tree with him, I am not. I am on the ground, and use a 200mm telephoto focal length to bring him into close range.
06-NOV-2008
Weaver, Tunis, Tunisia, 2008
While walking through the narrow streets of the ancient Tunis medina, we noticed a door ajar, and loom within. A weaver was working at it. We pointed to our cameras and nodded. He nodded back. We entered the small room, and I immediately began to work with my 24mm wideangle lens, which emphasized the size of the loom in relationship to the weaver. As he reached forward to draw the moveable part of the loom towards him, I made this image of strength, determination, and skill. We can even see the creases in his forehead as he strains to reach out and grasp the loom.
18-MAY-2008
Scale, Fiddletown, California, 2008
During California’s Gold Rush, many miners came to Fiddletown to buy their supplies. This scale, made in England, could possibly have been used by these miners to weigh gold bearing rocks. While rusty, it still bears some of the green paint that brightened a workplace. I moved close to reveal texture and color by spot-metering on the brightest point and letting the shadows add a sense of dimension.
04-APR-2008
Hauling in the nets, Cochin, India, 2008
Chinese traders introduced these huge cantilevered nets to Cochin six hundred years ago. They still work as they have always worked -- requiring great effort to haul in the catch. The platform on which they work is built of logs lashed together, and the moment at hand expresses the very essence of hard, physical work.
29-MAR-2008
Street breakfast, Varanasi, India, 2008
Three cooks prepare breakfasts of street food, the ovens below them glowing with red-hot coals. Even though it is a hot day, and the ovens throw intense heat, the cooks seem none the worse for wear. The food is largely deep-fried.
04-APR-2008
Street sweepers, Cochin, India, 2008
The streets of Cochin are cleaner and more orderly than those we saw in Northern India. Cochin’s European roots are part of the reason. I juxtapose two sweepers here – making one larger than the other to add perspective the scene. I liked the textures the brooms have left in the dust. The two sweepers work at the problem from opposite ends of the square, and only a delicate of band of floral droppings remains in their sights.
04-APR-2008
Fishermen, Cochin, India, 2008
Fishing is the lifeblood of Cochin. Some still seek fish by using the town's ancient nets (background). Others work the harbor with smaller nets, hoping for a catch. This image tells a story of preparation and cooperation, including the ever-optimistic presence of two crows and a cat.
03-JAN-2008
Construction worker, Vinh Long, Vietnam, 2008
The nature of this country’s vibrant, yet delicate economy is clearly evident in my images, including this photograph of a determined young man at work on the back of a vintage cement mixer in the small Mekong Delta city of Vinh Long. I saw him working but he stopped just as I raised the camera, and pointed at me with a smile. As I found in many other instances, the Vietnamese are so proud of being photographed by visitors that they stopped whatever they may have been doing and posed for me. This worker spent several minutes alternately self-consciously pretending to work and simply grinning at me. I kept on shooting him, knowing that eventually he would tire of the game and get back to work. Finally, he did just that. He geared up the ancient cement mixer and a look of concern and determination came to his face. He had forgotten all about me, and that’s when I made this photograph. If you desire credibility in your own images of people at work, it is a good idea to spend awhile getting them used to your presence. Eventually your subjects should gradually drift back to work, and then you can make images that tell the story of what is actually happening, instead of just a picture of somebody having their picture taken.
22-DEC-2007
Locksmith, Hue, Vietnam, 2007
I found this man waiting for business on a Hue street. From the locks hanging on his stand, he appears to be a locksmith, but since I don't speak Vietnamese, I can't be sure of that. Vietnam has a Communist government, yet its entrepreneurial populace lives largely by practicing Capitalism at the grass roots. I was drawn this subject because of the vivid colors of the construction fence behind him and his relaxed attitude in spite of the multi-colored energy exploding behind him. He simply hangs out his shingle and lets the world beat a path to his door.
23-DEC-2007
Rice farmer, near Hoi An, Vietnam, 2007
As I made this image, this rice farmer turned to look at me. He had a small cigar in his mouth, and his reflection in the rice paddy gave me two for the price of one. He seems to express a sense of jaunty pride – the job is physically brutal, muddy, and wet, but he seems to enjoy what he does. I showed this image to a student at Hanoi University and she told me that her mother was also a rice farmer. She said the image told the truth about the work at hand. As a photographic communicator, I feel an obligation to get the story right, and in this case, I think I’ve done so.
24-DEC-2007
Tied to her job, Hoi An, Vietnam, 2007
It was the tape measure that drew my eye. It hangs around her neck and around the bars that guard her window. While much of the world celebrated Christmas Eve, her work was her priority. The image is rich in color – reds, yellows, blues and a lavish spread of green, give life to the image. She may seem to be locked away here, but that tape measure linked to the window bars symbolically speaks of her connection to the world at large.
01-SEP-2007
Chef, Muar, Malaysia, 2007
Enthusiastic, proud, and generous, this street side chef was so happy we were photographing him in action that he offered everyone in our group of photographers a complimentary dish of spicy Malay food. The food, however, does not make the picture. It is the man who makes this photograph expressive. We can feel his warmth and spontaneity as he reaches for that plate of nourishment. He spent a lot of time posing for the camera. I tried to make my picture between those poses, when he reacted instead of acted.
10-SEP-2007
Grinder, Nanjing, China, 2007
A street-side grinder carefully appraises his work. There are many such skills on display in the streets of this city. I found a vantage point that relates his body language to his tools. The curves in his shoulders echo the curves of the grinders behind him and in front of him. I made this image from in front of him, rather than from the side, because I wanted the viewer to feel as if they were his customers –active, rather than passive, partners in the picture.
06-SEP-2007
Haircut, Shanghai, China, 2007
I made this image in the French Concession, an area of Shanghai that was once governed by France. The barber works on the city sidewalk, using the day's last light to ply his craft. It is the interplay of that light with the shadows that make this image an expressive one. The light abstracts the figures, showing less and leaving more of them to the imagination of the viewer. The light has a calming effect on the image as well – emotions are subdued, the steel scissors is invisible, the tension between the two men is drained away. What is left is the end of a perfect day.
13-SEP-2007
Mop and pail, Pingyao, China, 2007
The day begins for Pingyao's small businesses with a scrubdown. This woman is ready to go to work. This image asks us more questions than it answers. What does the Chinese words chalked on the door panels mean? What are the garments hanging on those racks? And what kind of business goes on within? The body language of the young woman speaks eloquently. She takes a firm stance, her red shoes complementing her red jacket. She is wary of the camera, not sure how to respond. She neither smiles nor frowns but seems to wait for me to make my picture and move on, leaving the viewer to answer the questions raised by this image.
(After I posted this image, Kal Khogali linked me to an image he made in Shanghai two years earlier. You can see
they share a task and a culture that makes a remarkable comparison.)
21-FEB-2007
Keane Wonder Mine, Death Valley National Park, California, 2007
This long abandoned goldmine was once a busy workplace. Today, only its foundations, old cyanide tanks, and the ruins of a tramway are left. I found this old spike among the ruins. It seems to have been driven only half-way into its beam. It’s going to be a long wait until someone comes along and finishes the job. I organized the two beams in the image as contrasting diagonals, with the point of focus on the old rusty spike. It is an image about work half-done and then forgotten forever.
20-FEB-2007
Locomotive, Death Valley National Park, California, 2007
This locomotive once hauled borax ore out of Death Valley. It has been retired to a yard behind the Death Valley Museum in Furnace Creek. It, too, was once a work place, but time and history have made it obsolete. Its once proud medallion is dripping rust, and its paint has cracked in the brutal summer sun that reaches 120 degrees (F). The brass medallion was once its birth certificate. Now it serves as its epitaph.
22-DEC-2006
Donkey gate, Skoura, Morocco, 2006
Donkeys are more plentiful than horses in Morocco. This one was waiting for us behind the hand made wooden gate of its corral. I was drawn to this scene by the juxtaposition of the donkey and the picturesque gate. Many photographers would have made this picture from straight on, causing the donkey and gate to merge into the yard beyond. I choose a vantage point from off to one side, eliminating the cluttered yard and placing both donkey and gate against a wall, making the image free of clutter and distraction. I shot several images and chose one that included the donkey’s eye.
21-DEC-2006
Heavy lifting, Tineghir, Morocco, 2006
This sheep needed a boost to reach its cage on top of the truck. The man doing the heavy lifting in this remote Moroccan town wears, of all things, an incongruous "New York" baseball cap. Many jobs in the workplace require great physical effort, including this one. The feet of the sheep and the foot of the man meet a lower left, creating a sense of imbalance and tension. The truck and cage flow create energy that flows in the same direction as the lift, drawing the eye into and through the image.
13-DEC-2006
Morning sweep, Mosque of Hassan II, Casablanca, Morocco, 2006
This vast, elegant mosque is Casablanca's main tourist attraction. It is constantly being cleaned, and holds 25,000 worshippers. Opened in 1993, it is the second largest religious building in the world. Only the mosque in Mecca is larger. Instead of making a view of the entire mosque, I waited at the steps to one of entrances while a worker made her final morning sweep. I backed up a bit to create a foreground layer with the two ornate gold stanchions at the top of the steps. This layer repeats the vertical flow of the two columns flanking the mosaic at top center in the background layer. The story itself is told in the subject layer, as the sweeper, hand to chin, pushes her broom across the floor at the bottom of the steps. Her job is an ordinary one. The setting in which she works, however, is incongruously extraordinary.
12-JUN-2006
Vineyard, Roseburg, Oregon, 2006
The Girardet vineyards cover thirty acres southwest of Roseburg on the spot where the cool coastal climate meets the warm interior of the Umpqua Valley. It’s a perfect location for growing the vines that produce fine wines. I waited at the end of a row of vines until this tractor reached the other end, fully extending my telephoto lens to more than 400mm to compress foreground, middleground and background into a single plane. It is an image of a man at work -- a hot, dusty, tiring job. The lush green vines prove the worth of his labors.
12-JUN-2006
Abandoned meat packing plant, Bandon, Oregon, 2006
While visiting Bandon, Oregon, I had an opportunity to photograph the abandoned remnants of a once thriving meat packing plant. This was the room where customers placed their orders. Today, a jumble of abandoned furnishings and ancient suitcases takes precedence over steaks and roasts. Each object adds to the history of a failed business. This image invites viewers into that history, asking them to observe, think, and wonder. A documentary photograph such as this one takes a fascinating inventory of past and present. What once was an orderly room is now dysfunctional. The image acquires much of its meaning from the menu of products that still fills the far wall. It speaks to us of slaughtering, purchasing, and eating. Today this room, like the rest of this plant, is a melancholy sight. Years after the last loin has been carved, and the last pig slaughtered, all that is left remains suspended in time. I offer this image as a corporate epitaph – a memorial to a business, which, like so many others in our times, has crumbled and vanished.
10-MAY-2006
Bodyshop, Phoenix, Arizona, 2006
Both of these bodies -- the man and the car he is restoring -- are sculpted by the interplay of light and shadow into energetic forms. The man appears to pause in his efforts for an instant, just as his body seems to attach itself to the fender of the ancient automobile. They are linked in both form and coloration, partners in a complex and laborious task. I use a spot meter to expose for the highlighted areas of the image, allowing the shadowed areas to grow dark and mysterious, and stressing the huge empty spaces that define the vintage shell of the antique car.
31-MAR-2006
Brick carrier, Shuhe, China, 2006
A huge pile of new bricks fills a Shuhe street from curb to curb. This woman will stack and then carry them on her head to a nearby construction site. I fill half of the frame with bricks to stress the huge number of bricks waiting to be stacked and carried. I abstract the woman by shooting her in the shadows, making her a symbol for all who do such work. I photographed her at the very moment she places still another brick on the ever-growing stack.
07-APR-2006
Shop window, Guilin, China, 2006
The woman who cleans this window is thorough and precise, creating a clear showcase for the mannequin watching every move she makes. The incongruity of live and artificial figures sharing the space dominates the image, yet the human value of caring comes through as well. Window cleaning is part of her job – she may rather be somewhere else at the moment, but there are no complaints in her eyes. She was so engrossed in her work that she never noticed me photographing her from only a short distance away.
05-APR-2006
Ditch diggers, Guilin, China, 2006
It is always jarring to Western eyes to see women at hard physical labor -- but jobs are jobs and Chinese women appear to be ready and willing to do whatever it takes to earn their wages. This pair had been digging a ditch on a Guilin street for over an hour. They take turns at digging and resting. They approach the task in a matter of fact way, and send each load of dirt spinning into space. I photographed these people at work for ten minutes or so – another image, showing one of these women at rest, is posted in my Human Values gallery. See it by clicking on the thumbnail at the bottom . I used the full extent of my zoom lens – 420mm – to make this image from across a busy street. The 1/40th of a second shutter speed was slow enough to blur the dirt, giving it an explosive effect that contrasts to the matter of fact expressions on the faces of both women.
31-MAR-2006
Carpenter, Shuhe, China, 2006
Shuhe is a Naxi village just outside of Lijiang. Its craftsmen work the wood just as they always have -- by hand. The early morning light striking the stone wall in the background has allowed me to put my subject into shadow, abstracting him so that we see shape rather than detail. I used my multiple image option, holding down the shutter button to fire a series of three frame bursts. One of them stopped the axe at a diagonal angle, complementing the three sets of crossed diagonals elsewhere in the image.
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.
Water Carrier, Salavan Province, Laos, 2005
Water is often laboriously carried in plastic containers balanced at both ends of a pole in the remote rural villages of Laos. Village houses have thatched roofs, and are usually built with ample space below them for cooking and sheltering hogs and chickens. All of which involves hard work. I don’t show the face of this woman, but her sarong tells us something about her culture, the arm raised to her head says a bit about how she feels, and the large house just around the curve well might be her own. In the rural villages of Laos, work is life and life is work. It is difficult to separate the two.
25-JAN-2005
Fish Table, Morning Market, Vientiane, Laos, 2005
The people who sell fish here are confident and proud of their product and their service. I could feel it in how they stood at that table as I photographed. While this may be a group environmental portrait, it is also a workplace picture, because you see them as their customers see them – ready to sell them fresh fish of their choice. Sometimes a workplace shot can take the measure of a person and of a society. I think this is one of those images. Laotians are not only kind and open; they are resolute and tough as well. When you photograph people at work, you can learn a lot about them, as well as the society they represent.
29-JAN-2005
Net Throw, Khong Island, Laos, 2005
The art of casting a fishing net from a dugout canoe is an ancient and difficult skill. I must have photographed dozens of such casts on the Mekong during our visit to Laos, but this was the golden moment in light, time, and space that best tells the story. The Mekong itself is one of the most important work places in Southeast Asia. Boatmen, fishermen, and farmers ply their trade on its waters and along its sandy banks from China to Vietnam. This particular image is an apt symbol for all of them. Much of what is done here requires skill and hard work. To hurl a net to the right spot at the right time and come home with dinner is very important to these people.
30-JAN-2005
Candymaker, Pakse, Laos, 2005
This woman works on a sugarcane farm near Pakse. She is making molds for candies produced from the sugarcane she grows, harvests, and cooks. I call this a working portrait – my subject is well aware of my presence. In fact, I showed her many of my images as I made them, and she was quite pleased to see herself pictured in this manner. Yet she is also working. She was wiring candy molds together as I photographed her. Our visit to this farm was quite brief – probably about 15 minutes or so. I choose her as my subject because of her animation and degree of activity. She moved from cooking sugar to making molds to taking care of her baby, showing many different aspects and degrees of working activity. My photographic approach to this woman reminded of me of my own youth, when I worked as corporate photojournalist at a large insurance company. I would follow an executive over the course of a morning with my camera, trying to express on film how he approached his work. I found myself doing the same thing here, within a smaller time frame, and with a Laotian candy-maker instead of a New York insurance executive. And now I use only digital cameras, which allow me to know exactly what I’ve been able to express, and share the results with the subject herself.
Flower Shop, Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon, Myanmar, 2005
These shelves, loaded with floral offerings, seem to overwhelm the women who sell them to worshippers at the Schwedagon Pagoda, one of the largest complexes of Buddhist temples on earth. In this case, I’ve subordinated the workers to the product they sell. The colors, textures, and shapes of the floral offerings were so varied and unique that I wanted to fill the frame with them. The workers are positioned so they do not conflict with these offerings, but rather complement them. The boss, wearing white, stands at left, working on a white bouquet that reflects the effect of a shaft of late afternoon light coming into the store through a doorway. Larger arrangements of white flowers seem to flow out of that little bouquet and move across the top of the image. Her young assistant, wearing red, and holding a bunch of green leaves, is warily watching me. She seems to have found a perfect niche at the bottom of the frame. This was the way I found them, and this was the way I left them.
Sweeper, Boataung Pagoda, Yangon, Myanmar, 2005
As they have for centuries, the people of Yangon clean their streets and temples by hand. Here, Botataung Temple undergoes a morning scrub down. This is an abstract approach to a workplace shot. The temple is famous for its stupa, which holds a hair of Buddha. I reduce that stupa to a shimmering gold reflection in the water the sweeper is using to clean the temple’s plaza. I tie the elements of this picture together with geometric rhythms. The sweeper’s head merges with the golden base of the stupa, a series of horizontal moldings. These horizontal lines repeat the flow of the horizontal safety rope the sweeper has put up to keep people away from the plaza while he cleans it. (I made sure the rope maintains its identity as a safety rope by not cropping out the small ribbons that hang from it at left and right. I did crop out some distracting elements on both the left and right sides of the frame.) The rope intersects with a red line extending the length of the plaza. The diagonal curb at the bottom of the frame repeats its diagonal thrust.
The sarong-clad sweeper himself, abstracted by the rear vantage point I am using, wields a broom that slices across both the rope and the paving line, and almost reaches the curb. The angle of the broom creates a series of triangles that seem to embrace the sweeper as he works. Meanwhile, the tilt of his hat brim echoes the angle of the broom, and the bend of his arm echoes the curves in the base of the stupa moldings. The final touch is the focal point of picture – as he steps carefully across the wet plaza, his right toe stops in mid step, pointing directly at the reflection of the temple’s most important shrine, its golden stupa.
Watermelon Seller, Ananda Temple, Bagan, Myanmar, 2005
Her face smeared liberally with cooling Thanaka paste, this watermelon vendor rests for a moment in the shade of one of Bagan's ancient ruined temples. She normally carries her tray of watermelon on her head. The watermelon is in her lap, but the small head pillow she uses to support the watermelon, remains ready for use at a moment’s notice. The convergence of colors in this image amazed me. Not only does she paint her face yellow, but the walls behind her seem to be painted with splotches of the same color. The top of the curving, sun-baked wall is the exact color of her head pillow. The colors of the wall blend with her so well, it seems as if she has become part of it.
A series of repeating rhythms pull the eye through this picture. The curves and points of the watermelon slices repeat the shape of the wall cutouts she leans on. Just as the watermelon slices are arrayed on her tray, point by point, so, too, the top of the wall behind her is designed as a series of repeating pointed shapes.
At ease, she looks at the camera, glad to find a spot of shade in the brutal mid-day heat. Soon she will place the watermelon back on her head and resume her rounds on the streets and plazas surrounding the ruins of Bagan’s most famous temple.
Stacking Rice, Yangon, Myanmar, 2005
Every day, tons of rice arrives at Yangon’s river port. Young men carry the huge bags to a holding area, where they are stacked in enormous piles. (You can get a glimpse of the physical effort that goes into this job in my photograph of a group of rice carriers on the move, which is displayed in my black and white gallery. See it by clicking on the thumbnail at the bottom.
This is a more abstract approach to an image devoted to the same job. Here we see two carriers, one from behind, and one just suggested by only a single leg, working with the stack itself. The diagonal thrust of that leg, entering the frame in the upper left hand corner, leads directly to the bag of rice on the other man’s back, and echoes the line of his dangling arm.
There are more than 50 bags in this shot. All were carried here on somebody’s back. And all of them will be carried away from here on somebody else’s back, as well.
River Landing, Yangon, Myanmar, 2005
Yangon is surrounded on three sides by muddy water --its busy port is on the Yangon River. Aged boats of all kinds jam the harbor. This scene could have just as easily been photographed in 1905 as in 2005. In this image, two boatmen guide a venerable long boat away from the landing. Its passengers are on the way to a larger boat standing in deeper water. This photograph is based on scale relationships. The two upright figures contrast to the sitting figures, and are small compared to the boats around them. Like most of the other jobs in Yangon, this work is done by hand, just as it has been done for centuries. Time moves slowly in this city once known as Rangoon. The work here is done with care and precision, but in no great hurry. The slow pace of the work is echoed in this image – the two workers seem to be frozen in place forever.
Brick Carriers, Mandalay, Myanmar, 2005
I watched as these women carefully balanced heavy loads of bricks on their heads while working on a construction project in Mandalay. They showed almost no emotion at all -- they behaved like robots, programmed to do the dirty heavy work. Balance, strength, determination, and patience are all part of this job. I tried to imply these attributes within this image.
Sifting Rice, Mahagandhayon Monastery, Amarapura, Myanmar, 2005
It takes a lot of time and effort to feed a thousand monks every day, and this woman is one of those that work in the monastery’s food preparation area. Part of her job is to sift hundreds of pounds of rice each day, removing the impurities before cooking it for the monk’s mid day meal. I used a normal shutter speed of 1/60th of a second to make this photograph, which was able to stop, yet also blur, a mass of rice in mid-air at the peak of its leap from the sifting tray. While the unsual fountain of moving rice grains is the focal point of this image, there are other important factors that make the picture work. Her shirt and huge hair clip are similar to the rice in color. The way she is able to grip the ground by spreading her toes from a squatting position is informative. And the intensity she brings to the task is critical – she takes her job seriously and does it well.
18-JAN-2005
Food Packer, Huay Xai, Laos, 2005
As soon as I entered the large market hall at Huay Xia, I saw the potential for a striking workplace image. A huge canvas awning was stretched from floor to ceiling across one side of the hall, open on all four sides, to cool the heat of the afternoon sun. It was made up entirely of cool blue and gray striping, and with the sunlight passing through it, it was beautifully translucent. All I needed to do was to look for people working directly in front of it. They would become silhouetted, backlit abstract figures, symbolizing the physical work that goes into maintaining such a market as this. I found my subject in this woman, who was busily packing food into a container. I photographed her just as she was completing her task and sealing the container in a plastic bag. Her body language was perfect. She seems to be saying “There! Almost done!”.
22-JAN-2005
Dust Patrol, Luang Prabang, Laos, 2005
Like all Laotian cities, Luang Prabang is dusty. Its public streets are left to accumulate layers of it, but its vast temples are kept gleaming by the flying brooms of their young monks. To me, this trio of sweeping monks was unknowingly performing an exotic ballet of the workplace for my camera. The fellow at left seems to be off in own world of fallen leaves, while the two monks at right arrange themselves and their brooms into an intricate pattern of geometric angles while searching for some remaining dust to move around.
The Empty Basket, Mandalay Jetty, Myanmar, 2005
A never-ending procession of people carry heavy baskets of sand on their heads from a ship at the Mandalay Jetty. The sand will be used for construction work. One of these women, however, is returning to get another load of sand, her basket empty. And so the cycle repeats itself. Load after load after load.
I saw this image as a tableau commemorating the traditional work process of Burma. For example, the Burmese technology of moving sand – fill basket with sand, put on head, walk to dump, empty sand, come back for more – has not changed much in 100 years. This colorful scene is like a vintage stage play. I layered it heavily with levels of action. In the foreground, a blurred pile of sand. Then the slope of the beach, a triangle slashing across the bottom of the image. Then the cast of players, each with his or her job to do. And finally, the old double decked boat, giving context to the scene.
If I were to make an image that captures the essence of how Burma works, this would be it.