- Betel Nuts
Cochin or Kochi a city on the coast of Kerala, India 2009
We wandered the streets of Kochi looking for spice warehouses, men in dhoties carrying burlap sacks of cinnamon on their bare shoulders, pyramids of pepper piled to the ceilings of cavernous “go-downs”. We found some women sifting dried ginger root. We found some dark cavernous warehouses. And we found this man.
The place was shabby, always good for photographs, and it was colorful: yellow painted walls now smudged and damaged, doors painted green or blue, the hasps padlocked with those huge Indian padlocks. And betel nuts spread out to be culled.
Somehow the color version of this shot never pleased me to the degree that I like to be pleased with my photos. But this stark black and white version suits. I like the oily sheen that the high contrast treatment gives to the nuts and to the man’s hand. And the way it makes the shape of the nuts draw your eye.
Click here to see the women sifting ginger root inside a warehouse in Kochi:
http://www.rosemarysheel.com/archives/exotic
Funny, when you work in black and white for a long time, color seems to be so much more interesting. And when you work in color for a long time, black and white seems to be more dramatic. It’s nice to have a choice. Remember when we didn’t?