Sunday, January 31, 2016

Two Friends + Pinar del Rio, Cuba, Summer of 2015


Alejandro and I drove West one afternoon, trying to get away from the clouds in the city. This seemed to work sometimes, as we drove in the direction of Pinar del Rio and found sunshine on many occasions. 

We drove for quite a while and were unable to find faces to document, stories to tell. The search because desperate, especially when two sets of clouds started to come together, creating a tiny sliver of space for the sun to set. Just as we almost gave up, we found this beautiful home and decided to stop.

We then stepped out of the car as we realized the people were looking our way. The women were about to walk home, but decided to remain and listen to our request. We asked permission to photograph the home first, knowing that their curiosity would get the best of them.

It was raining lightly as I exposed a few images of the home. To my immediate left a chicken was guarding her eggs carefully, making me feel a bit uneasy about the location of the tripod. Everyone eased my mind though, and saw it as quite comical.

This made it easy to ask for their portraits, and resulted in the smiles we see below. We photographed the man of the house first, a marvelously powerful farmer whose spirit transferred to film perfectly I hoped at that moment.

The women were great of course, laughing all along and helping each other along the way. My experience has always taught me that acting a clown helps very much, it lowers barriers and allows others to see a lighter side of the photographer. The smiles in this image were the result!


Note: This image was made with a Sony RX100M2. 

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