Calderai Man
Romania 2012: A Gypsy village near Sibiu. All of the gypsy men of this village, and of many others that Daniel Gheorghita (www.felixromania.com) and I visited, wore this distinctive hat.
I happened to find a book about gypsies in my library. (Before Amazon, I used to order remainders from Edward R. Hamilton in Connecticut. If you ever want to find books on odd subjects, see what he has to offer. It’s a treasure trove.) My book had old photos of gypsies from Poland and a few from Romania. And some of them wore a hat similar to this one. So I figured this was a Kalderash Gypsy man. And then I recalled that Daniel had told me that the last name of the gypsy man meant “pot maker”. Calderai…cauldron…pot maker. Mystery solved.
There are many Calderai families making pots of copper in Romania. I was going to buy one, but it had a rounded bottom and wouldn’t sit on my glass-topped electric stove. They are made to hang over an open fire. Of course!
If Looks Could Kill
This man was hammering a piece of tin as he sat in the warm sun on a day in early spring. Actually, he was not unfriendly. I took several photos of him. None of them were really good due to his hat shading his face. But with plug-ins, I was able to show more of his eyes and give you an idea of what he looked like. Whenever I ‘rescue’ a photo, I cringe inwardly because I once heard Jay Maisel, a famed New York photographer, say “never show anything unless it is your best”. I assuage my guilt by telling myself that for me it is more about the subject of the photo than the photo itself. I think it’s ok if I my photo expands on a topic.
The top photo was ‘grunged’. Funny, but Daniel did the same to his photo of this man. Daniel said we had not done a good job because we had full sun on his face. I agree, that was not good technique, but I wanted this man next to his home and could I help it if the sun was shining in that direction? If you want to see her, I have his wife posed next to the house here. http://www.rosemarysheel.com/archives/gypsy-woman
Wonderful photo, this man resembles my father. We are gypsies. My family and I live in São José do Rio Preto, SP, Brasi. Devlessa
Hello, Alfonso.
Thank you for your email. I’m glad you liked the photo of a man who resembles your father and I hope your father is in good health. I enjoyed meeting a few gypsies in Romania. They seem to be much better off now than when I visited Romania 20 years ago…well, all Romanians are better off now!
Thanks for visiting my blog.
Best,
Rosemary