Luang Prabang is a place that lives in the past as well as the present. This woman, poised with her ladle over a serving table at a street-side restaurant, may just as well have been standing here with ladle in hand 100 years ago.

I placed this woman within three frames simultaneously – the frame of the camera itself, the frame of the doorway, and the frame created by the awning overhead and the low wall in front of her restaurant. It was, I felt, like looking at her through a time tunnel. That was the point of my image. Many of the contemporary plastic food containers piled on the tables in front of her are in vivid colors. Even her red ladle is plastic. I thought these colors, with their evocation of the present, contrasted nicely to her timeless doorway pose. (You can see all of these colors by viewing this same image in its original form as posted in my travel article on Laos at: http://www.worldisround.com/articles/139137/photo32.html )

When I converted this photograph to black and white, that contrast vanished. The contemporary food containers are still there in black and white but are not emphasized. Because she stands by herself within the black entry to the restaurant, she is emphasized, and so is her timeless pose. I thought this black and white version was more of a trip through a time tunnel. Yes, all the plastics are still there, and so is the electrical equipment on the wall. But in black and white, everything now revolves around the woman with the ladle and her timeless duties as a preparer of meals.