Rice is the most important crop in rural Laos. The husking process --using a wooden mortar and pestle -- is brutally physical. The husks are smashed with an enormously heavy pole. The toll it takes on both body and spirit is evident in this portrait of a rice husker.

In color, this portrait tells its story through reality. In black and white, it tells its story symbolically. Abstraction leads to symbolization, and that is what happens in this case.

You can view the color version of this image posted in my travel article on Laos at: http://www.worldisround.com/articles/139137/photo83.html

She is very tired. We all would be exhausted after lifting that huge wooden mallet over our heads time and time again. Yet she stands in a warm environment. The colors are often warm and quite real. The reds and browns of her home, the earth upon which she stands, her colorful skirt, her enormous mallet, complement her tanned complexion. All of these colors share equal billing with her torn shirt, her somewhat impatient body language, and her solemn expression.

In the black and white version, the body language, expression, and torn shirt take over. Everything else becomes context for them. It is a more poignant image, expressively journalistic in nature rather than an example of expressive travel photography. Each version tells its story well, but differently.