12/12/2024
“You know, so often [photography] is just sticking around and being there, remaining there, not swooping in and swooping out in a cloud of dust; sitting down on the ground with people, letting the children look at your camera with their dirty, grimy little hands, and putting their fingers on the lens, and you let them, because you know that if you will behave in a generous manner, you’re very apt to receive it, you know? People are very, very trusting; and also, most of us really like to get the full attention of the person who’s photographing you. It’s rare, you don’t get it very often. Who pays attention to you, really, a hundred percent? You doctor, your dentist, and your photographer.” - Dorothea Lange
It’s easy to get caught up in the glamorous pictures; the big fish or the newspaper-headline conflict shot or whatever the job may be. But hands-down, my favorite part about this job is the “hurry and up and wait” moments; the moments when we’re in transit and just… lingering. It gives me the chance to spend some quiet time with the locals of wherever I’m working; to ask if I can make a portrait. I met this young girl, photographed in the Bolivian Amazon while fishing with , while waiting at the airstrip. The second image is of a tribesman and sometimes-guide in Jordan; it took a half-day of desert hiking and getting to know one another before he agreed to let me take his picture. It’s still one of my favorite images of all time. And the kids in the third shot, who I met in the mountains of Lesotho while shooting with , weren’t sure what to make of the big camera until I sat down right in the middle of them, letting them play with the camera and see themselves on the LCD screen. Then we were buddies.
Take the time to get to know people along the way. Ask them if you can make a photograph. You won’t regre
![“You know, so often [photography] is just sticking around and being there, remaining there, not swooping in and swooping...](https://img5.medioq.com/488/343/1139121694883434.jpg)
