This long abandoned goldmine was once a busy workplace. Today, only its foundations, old cyanide tanks, and the ruins of a tramway are left. I found this old spike among the ruins. It seems to have been driven only half-way into its beam. It’s going to be a long wait until someone comes along and finishes the job. I organized the two beams in the image as contrasting diagonals, with the point of focus on the old rusty spike. It is an image about work half-done and then forgotten forever.

Donkeys are more plentiful than horses in Morocco. This one was waiting for us behind the hand made wooden gate of its corral. I was drawn to this scene by the juxtaposition of the donkey and the picturesque gate. Many photographers would have made this picture from straight on, causing the donkey and gate to merge into the yard beyond. I choose a vantage point from off to one side, eliminating the cluttered yard and placing both donkey and gate against a wall, making the image free of clutter and distraction. I shot several images and chose one that included the donkey’s eye.

This vast, elegant mosque is Casablanca's main tourist attraction. It is constantly being cleaned, and holds 25,000 worshippers. Opened in 1993, it is the second largest religious building in the world. Only the mosque in Mecca is larger. Instead of making a view of the entire mosque, I waited at the steps to one of entrances while a worker made her final morning sweep. I backed up a bit to create a foreground layer with the two ornate gold stanchions at the top of the steps. This layer repeats the vertical flow of the two columns flanking the mosaic at top center in the background layer. The story itself is told in the subject layer, as the sweeper, hand to chin, pushes her broom across the floor at the bottom of the steps. Her job is an ordinary one. The setting in which she works, however, is incongruously extraordinary.

While visiting Bandon, Oregon, I had an opportunity to photograph the abandoned remnants of a once thriving meat packing plant. This was the room where customers placed their orders. Today, a jumble of abandoned furnishings and ancient suitcases takes precedence over steaks and roasts. Each object adds to the history of a failed business. This image invites viewers into that history, asking them to observe, think, and wonder. A documentary photograph such as this one takes a fascinating inventory of past and present. What once was an orderly room is now dysfunctional. The image acquires much of its meaning from the menu of products that still fills the far wall. It speaks to us of slaughtering, purchasing, and eating. Today this room, like the rest of this plant, is a melancholy sight. Years after the last loin has been carved, and the last pig slaughtered, all that is left remains suspended in time. I offer this image as a corporate epitaph – a memorial to a business, which, like so many others in our times, has crumbled and vanished.

A huge pile of new bricks fills a Shuhe street from curb to curb. This woman will stack and then carry them on her head to a nearby construction site. I fill half of the frame with bricks to stress the huge number of bricks waiting to be stacked and carried. I abstract the woman by shooting her in the shadows, making her a symbol for all who do such work. I photographed her at the very moment she places still another brick on the ever-growing stack.

It is always jarring to Western eyes to see women at hard physical labor -- but jobs are jobs and Chinese women appear to be ready and willing to do whatever it takes to earn their wages. This pair had been digging a ditch on a Guilin street for over an hour. They take turns at digging and resting. They approach the task in a matter of fact way, and send each load of dirt spinning into space. I photographed these people at work for ten minutes or so – another image, showing one of these women at rest, is posted in my Human Values gallery. See it by clicking on the thumbnail at the bottom . I used the full extent of my zoom lens – 420mm – to make this image from across a busy street. The 1/40th of a second shutter speed was slow enough to blur the dirt, giving it an explosive effect that contrasts to the matter of fact expressions on the faces of both women.