Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/08/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I just came back from a week of photographing people in rural communities of southern Ecuador (41 rolls). Most of these towns are pretty small and are really out of the way.... so the chance of me going un-noticed was just about impossible. My host and I were the first "white" people some had ever seen in person or at least talked to... if that gives you any idea. My general strategy in really public places like markets is to hang out in one spot long enough for people to ignore me and go back to their day-to-day business. Or as was more often the case where there were only a couple of people around, I'd try to lighten the tension and start a conversation... after investing 1/2 hour or 45 minutes, I'd start taking pictures again. Children are always the easiest subjects as they want you to take their pictures.... but they are the hardest to get to back to the point where they ignore you and don't lean into the picture. There were times when I was able to photograph people without them really noticing it.... but very few pictures were taken where people were completely unaware of my presence. I have to use a 135 f/2 and a 80-200 zoom to have any chance of it. But I prefer working closer with a 50, 85 or 90 when possible. One town I was in is the home of a nationally well known and reputed drug-lord... He is rather easy to spot as he drives around town in a brand new SUV and everyone else walks, rides a horse or in the back of a truck. I had wandered around for a several hours each day I was there after getting back from day trips taking photographs of people around town. I decided that shooting people coming through the square on their way to Sunday mass would give me an opportunity to shoot lots of people in what is normally a quiet town. Everything was going along fine until I noticed a couple of guys with cowboy hats, gold chains and one with sunglasses that were dressed way far better than everyone else I had seen going into church or during the entire week. In hind-sight I am really glad I was just observing people and looking for subjects at that moment and did not have the camera and telephoto zoom up to my eye, as these guys gave me a stare during the 50 yd walk all the way into the church that sent shivers up my spine. I had already gotten what I was looking for so I moved on and I decided it I would be a bit more careful about the people I pointed a camera at after that. Not too much later after mass, the new SUV was cruising around town and when he went by me I instinctively smiled, said "hola" and while he greeted me back....he did a head jerk that said.... "who is that gringo with the cameras in my town who just said hi to me?" I saw his car cruising the streets and he passed by me several more times and I made sure both cameras were always pointing down. Everybody of course asked me what I was taking pictures for. I told them I was taking pictures for an eye clinic that we started in the nearby town of Gonzanamá and besides pictures in the clinic, we wanted pictures of people and life around the province too. It took quite a while to convince people I was telling the truth which usually meant answering questions about where else I had been, about eyes, treatment, pricing, clinic hours and directions.... I had to keep reminding them I was a photographer and not an eye doctor..... but I was glad I had spent enough time around eye doctors and the clinic to know the answers. I'm not sure what would have happened had I not had that allibi, I probably would not have gotten as many good images. But I am glad to be home again and that my next door neighbor doesn't begin butchering pigs every morning at 4 A.M. Try sleeping through that one, but that is a story for another day... Duane Birkey HCJB World Radio Quito Ecuador Duane's Photographs of Ecuador http://duane_birkey.tripod.com