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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Fifteen: Making travel portraits that define personality and character. > Hmong Rice Farmer, near Pak Beng, Laos, 2005
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19-JAN-2005

Hmong Rice Farmer, near Pak Beng, Laos, 2005

Clearly tired, this farmer leans on his doorframe to watch the brief invasion of his village by nine American tourists. While one of these tourists, using two cameras simultaneously, made a number of photographs of him, he never moved or looked. He simply was not interested in having his image made but he had no reservations, either. Open doors are wonderful places to make portraits. They give you a black background, making the subject boldly stand out. They offer the subject a place to lean, or something to grab. Doors are symbolic, often making the subject into a guardian of his or her territory. This relaxed body language, however, makes him anything but a guardian. He is a farmer, purely and simply. This portrait tells us that.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20
1/80s f/2.8 at 10.6mm iso80 full exif

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Phil Douglis28-Feb-2005 02:05
You're right -- this guy could be farmer in Iowa, but for the house he lives in. Western cultural influences have permeated Southeast Asia, as you note, and freely incorporate them into my photographs.
monique jansen27-Feb-2005 10:25
He is a farmer, his house is traditional but he is wearing a baseball hat - again this contrast between tradition and modern life, a lot of people in 'third world' countries have to balance their traditions, culture against an onslaught of mostly American influences, such as jeans, baseball caps etc. We can only imagine how that must be. Also through tourism he gets a glimpse of western society, with all its materialism, whereas I would imagine his possessions to be quite modest.
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