This is #20 in my series ‘Making of 40 Photographs’. Don’t you just love the mystery of photography?
For me, I like to conjure up a story, imagine what was really happening when I make an image. I think that’s part of the ‘dream state’ that is part of making an image. When I visualise a scene, I conjure up a feeling and sometimes a story to back it up.
So what is ‘my’ story for this image? Well to me, it’s like she’s heading off to get married, a young bride, perhaps getting married to her religion. Of course, I could be completely wrong, but that’s the attraction for me.
And then there is the interaction. It’s not often we get a chance to get involved with others that are passing by. Some people are more intriguing than others and with street photography, I get a chance to enter into their life, albeit for a brief moment.
I just love that.
I often get up really early in the morning when I’m in a foreign city. There is a calmness and a different face to a city that you don’t see later on in the day. I guess you could argue that there are similarities to shooting a city in the morning and shooting a rural landscape in the morning. The city is still waking up and I have time as well as peace in which to roam.
And that’s what I often do is just roam, and see where my wandering will take me and what images are waiting for me round the next corner.
I shot this image on a newly acquired Contax 645 camera and standard 80mm lens. I think it was shot at around f2 - it’s the ideal way to isolate the foreground and diffuse the background. There’s an overall pink tone to the image which I find rather pleasing, but I thing for me, it’s the expression on her face that works for me, as well as the timelessness quality that film presents.
Her mother was really pleased that I wanted to take her little daughters photo. I often find in developing countries that parents are very happy for their children to be photographed. There is a different culture to photo-making in each country I’ve visited. Morocco is bordering on it being a crime, until there is some history or meaning to the shot. Perhaps you buy something from a shop holder - asking for their image makes much more sense, but in general, most people don’t understand why a stranger would want to take their picture. We’re a strange breed - us westerners.