The two pictures in this post were, again, taken on the trip to Varanasi, India. Both are scenes from along the banks of the River Ganges. Although the trip was actually part of a journalism project, for which the photos needed to be content driven, the two photos here are of a different kind, taken primarily because the scenes immediately struck me for the arrangement of the elements within them, and not for any reason of the narrative element or any particular “point” to the scene. I think it important to trust the mind to make sense of a scene in this way, even if you cannot articulate that sense, either at the time or on reflection. It seems to me a more authentic way to record how one “sees.” Also, over time, you tend to accumulate photos of this kind, and these become a set of images that speak more truthfully of how you understand the world visually, rather than photos designed to replicate others or to purposefully convey a given idea.
Taken with a 1950s 50mm collapsible Summicron on a Leica. Sepia toned. Looks to me like I screwed up the developing on the second photo. The problem is with the negative, not the print.
[…] fire in the eyes, holding a sari to dry in the sunbreeze as she barked orders to a companion, and a man dozing on the paving, his forearm on his elbow pivot, held perpendicular as he cradles his head in […]