Zhujiajiao, a river town 25 miles west of Shanghai, dates back to the Ming Dynasty, and still retains much of its original atmosphere. I saw this cook sitting in front of a shop along its main street, painstakingly preparing Zongzi, a dish that will be stuffed with grains of rice. She so absorbed in her task that she never seemed to notice me making her picture. Normally I make sure that the eyes of my subjects are visible, because the eyes, along with the hands, are often the most expressive parts of a portrait. But in this case, the downcast eyes worked. She seems to be using her teeth and two hands to tie the food up in a little package. The image is all about concentration, detail, dexterity and determination, and we don’t need to actually see her eyes to know this. The coordination between head and hands is intense and extremely skillful – this woman has been doing this for a long, long time, seems very good at what she does, and that is the point of this portrait.