Sunday, February 1, 2015

Worker + Tools, Countryside, Cuba, Summer of 2014



On our way back to the city Alejandro took me through a small town where we ran across this gentleman as he was working to clear the weeds from the sidewalk. We pulled over across the street and worked our way over to have a conversation. The entire time we spoke with this gentle man he had this smile, even though he had worked under the intense sun all morning.

This was his job, and he performed it daily even though he was well into his ninth decade. He was interested in our work and accepted being photographed. So we hurried to set up the camera, and began making these images. It was during the image of the tools in the air that a man came up to us and inquired as to our intent. 

This happens so often that I have gained an unfortunate habit, to acknowledge the person asking questions while focusing on the person being photographed at the same time. In this case Alejandro spoke my name and told me that this was the gentleman's son. Talk about putting the foot in the mouth!

While the son was suspicious, he did listen to our story and allowed us to continue while his father kept this same smile all along. Soon he will have these images, and his son will hopefully see that our intent was indeed true.

www.halimina.org

Note: These images were made with a Hasselblad 555 ELD/180 mm combination onto Fuji Neopan Acros 100 ISO film.

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