Photographing

A little about a possible project of mine.

2nd August

I met a lady in the downstairs toilet of our boarding school washing her little girl. Instinct told me to ask her for a photo, so using universal hand gestures for "can I take your photo" and "tomorrow", she gestured "OK".

This was my only thread and I so I told myself that in order to have anything exhibited on saturday I needed to start taking pictures - not sit around thinking about what to do all week and then shitting myself on friday. So I went along and hoped I could find her.

3rd August

Lucky for me she waved before I could even see her, standing outside with her friends surrounded by a large collection of children. One lady spoke fairly good english and helped me translate that I wanted to photograph her and also that I was keen for her to tell me how she wanted to be depicted. When asked this she said (in English) "In my kitchen". I could tell they were all in sort of a hurry so I couldn't photograph for as long as I would have liked, but I did a roll and hoped for the best.

The images came out formal and fairly static, but I liked the tones and colours of the inside of their apartment. I also liked the toys that were lying about everywhere - a bit like in our dormitory.

It got more interesting when she was in her kitchen as she began picking up knives and pretending to chop cucumbers, then holding a teapot as if to pour some tea.

Her name is Alona.

4th August

I went back the next day (yesterday) with an index sheet to show her and my 35mm camera. I asked if I could take some more pictures and she said it was fine. Her son Dennis was there and he looks and acts like his mum. He began by posing quite comically for the camera, then he started taking toys and props and going all out interacting with them. Then came the masks. He had a gorilla mask and a devil mask and toy gun and he began to play with them. I followed the family around the house and photographed various moments. I was getting more excited the more they were and really enjoying myself. Alona like the pictures and so I promised to print them for her and return the next day (this morning).

5th August

I returned with prints today and Alona was in the kitchen by herself There was a tiny ginger kitten next to the wellington boots outside the front door looking adorable. I showed her the next set of index prints and she liked them alot. She also introduced me to her niece Yvgenia, who also wanted some portraits taken. I photographed her in the same place as Alona with my medium format camera. I asked if Dennis would like to come for a walk in his gorilla outfit and so me him and Yvgenia went outside. Dennis had been let loose and he climbed trees, peered through the washing line, sat in a car and generally monkeyed about. Yvgenia spoke a basic English and translated a little bit for me, but it wasn't hard to communicate with a gorilla. Soon, Denis's grandma Laryssa arrived and seemed a little bit tipsy. She didn't really acknowledge me at first and I thought she was a little shy to have her photo taken. It turned out however, that she was a real performer, who wanted me to photograph her climbing up a tree. I happily complied and did my best to capture granny and Deniss in the tree together. It was an amazing experience. The branch however, soon began to crack and Yvgenia did all she could to stop her Grandma from falling out of the tree. It didn't work and they collapsed in a hysterical heap together on the floor.

It carried on and on. She tossed around the hay for me, fought with her gorilla grandson and culminated her small performance with a berry picking session in a nearby bush - the result of which was handed to me as a gift.

(more to follow)