Surprised
Gujarat, India 2009
I was told by a successful photographer that photos sell in this order: first: landscapes, second: pretty girls, third: old men and fourth: old women. I guess it’s true…a friend remarked that she wouldn’t want a portrait of a stranger hanging in her home. But I think if it were a painted portrait, she’d have a different opinion. Think Rembrandt.
This is a handsome woman and, better yet, she looks intelligent…if you wanted to know how to load gear onto a camel, well, you’d ask her before you asked anyone. And if you wanted to know how to make the best chapatis, she’d tell you the recipe and if your child was ill, she’d have a remedy. She’d know the way to the next camping place, the best grazing on the way and which landowners would allow her to cross their property. The Rabari tradition is that the women control the money and I sense that this woman has husbanded every rupee her whole life long.
She was surprised to see me point my lens at her, but in a split second her face melted into a smile. Maybe she sensed that I would hang a black and white version of her portrait in my home.
Rabari Matron