The Spirit of the Tree
Ethiopia 2013…At the Abore Village in Omo Valley
Some photographers scorn cropping. It’s beneath them. They take pride in cropping in the viewfinder. I like to crop in the viewfinder, too. But when I’m sitting at my computer and I see something in my shot that cries out to be isolated and emphasized, I do it.
This Abore woman was part of a group of about eight Abore tribespeople standing in a rather jagged line. I had my wide angle lens on one camera and instinctively shot.
We’d had a lecture about noticing the light and posing people to take advantage of the light. I didn’t want to pose people. I wanted to take a picture not make a picture. And…and… from the look of the people they didn’t want to be posed. In fact, the Abore seemed rather intimidating and averse to posing. I was in their village…an uninvited guest so to speak… and so I did as little posing as possible. I made all of us happy that way.
I do like my wide angle group portrait of elongated figures,. They are almost silhouetted against the harsh landscape. It’s different. And it’s why I always carry my 12 to 28 lens. It’s my idea that if you always use the same lens, you always take the same picture.
As I studied my group portrait, I noticed this young woman standing behind the tree, blending with the tree into a sculpture: her beautiful profile, her head covering blowing in the wind, the gnarled shape of the tree and the desolate background. There was no way on earth that I could have dreamed up that pose. Well, I had to crop, didn’t I?