Mopti Woman
Mopti, Mali 1998: A woman heads to the market with her hand-woven fans.
Our vehicle was parked on a dusty backstreet in Mopti. Other people on the tour were inside a trader’s home dickering over the price of ceremonial masks. I was outside, photographing everything that moved or didn’t move. Then this woman walked by. I shot her photo before she could say no. But she didn’t say no. She paused, waiting for me to get myself together. She wore a lovely expression on her face. So lovely that although I underexposed her face, more on that later, I have not discarded this photo. That nanosecond of human interaction is still in my mind when I see this slide.
Now, using every technical advantage that digital brings, I am able to see her face and warm smile. I’m able to saturate the colors of her clothing and her fans. Things don’t look that bright in real life, but we’ve gotten used to overly saturated colors thanks to digital. Sometimes, I want a natural look, but here I think the bright colors say Africa.
Her face was underexposed on my slide because when dark skin is photographed in bright light the range of contrast is too great for film or digital. You either lose the shadows or the highlights. And her face was in the shadow. You can see her face now. The drawback is the noise…that grainy look to her skin. But I think her lovely face more than makes up for any technical flaws.
What is she carrying on her head, you ask? Well, I don’t really know. Maybe more fans or other objects she wants to sell. For an African, the top of the head is like another hand. If they remove their sweater, they fold it up and place it on top of their head. No one feels funny about a floppy old sweater on top of their head.