We came to the locked gates of his monastery and looked through the bars. This monk saw us, and invited us in. The sun was just setting, and as we talked, I noticed it brushed his tunic in fragment of golden light, particularly over his heart. We asked many questions and he painstakingly answered them in English, and as he was talking to us, I kept photographing him. I organized the image using diagonal flow, starting with the softly focused gate in the upper left hand corner, and then using the garden hose to carry the eye past the flowery hedge to my subject. When he naturally crossed his arms and looked skyward for a moment while he searched for an answer, I made this portrait. It is a rewarding image because rather than telling us what he looks like, it tells us who he is. And that is the ultimate purpose of portraiture.