Ballet on Inle Lake
Inle Lake, Burma, 2011
Many photos, including mine, of leg rowing fishermen on Inle Lake are “posed”. That is the men are hired to act as if they are fishing in front of a group of photographers. The leader might call instructions to the men and they comply. I’ve read that the famed Steve McCurry doesn’t work like that…he waits for the men to do something that intrigues him and then he shoots. The article I read said that Steve doesn’t even speak to the fishermen, except I’m sure he says hello. After that he lets their ideas take over.
This photo is not staged. This man was laying out his nets one evening as we flew by in our long boat. We stopped to watch. Our guide instructed our pilot to keep the boat even with the fisherman. My husband shot the scene with a video camera and when we got home and watched the fisherman work, it looked like a ballet. His arms flowed left to right, now and then his leg would grasp the oar and the boat would surge forward all the while the sun glittered a silver path on the blue lake. Beautiful.