Portrait of a Rabari
Gujarat, India 2004 Somewhere on the “Great Rann of Kutch”
There we were, photographing flamingoes on the marshy Rann of Kutch when we noticed a cloud of dust approaching: a large herd of camels being driven at a run. Two men dressed in white ‘pyjamas’ and wearing bright red turbans wove back and forth on their camels, yelling and lashing at the herd with their whips. Rabari! The very tribe I had come to India to see. Quickly, I turned my lens on this dramatic sight.
I saw the Rabari and they saw me. The man in the portrait above galloped his camel to a screeching halt right in front of me. He leapt from his camel and stood towering over me. Yikes! I waited, expecting a volley of curses for having the nerve to photograph him and his herd without permission. He held out his hand. What? Was he going to take my camera? Now what do I do? Then my racing mind deciphered the word, ‘cigarette’. He only wanted a smoke…a Marlboro. I looked into his dark eyes and, unafraid now, pressed the shutter for this portrait.
I didn’t know it then, but my lens was broken. The shutter would stay open, overexposing the shot to the point of obliterating the subject. The exposure on his face wasn’t too bad since he had the sun to his back. Once home and back at my computer, I was able to darken and isolate his face on the totally white background. It turned out better than if I’d gotten a perfect exposure.
I have this poster hanging near my computer and I look at it every day. I never tire of it.