More portraits

 

 

  

When I get my camera out people are usually keen for me to take their photo. Invariably, as soon as it’s pointed at them, they draw themselves up and stand rigid with the most serious expression they can muster. So it can be hard to get snaps of people looking normal, and usually involves me taking one severely posed photo, then another as soon as I seem to have finished and they have relaxed.

Other times though, usually when there is a large group of people, the collective excitement of the occasion gets the better of the most stern-faced young men, as in the middle picture here. The danger here, for me, is that once I have taken one person’s photo the rest of the village’s male population want theirs taken too, with various different family members and friends. On several occasions this has involved a good-natured scrum of people trying to get in front of the lens, then to see the results. My camera is covered in the grubby fingerprints of kids who have grabbed at it as it’s passed around.

With these mass photo-shoots, I try afterwards to get the results printed and send them back to the village, though it often takes several months to do so. For many people, I know it will be the only photo they have of themselves.

 

Tags: Afghanistan, photography, portraits