My Favorite Gypsy

Man in Fedora

Transylvania, somewhere near Kalnoky Estates 2012

Two horse-pulled wagons drew slowly up the hill. I spotted this man in his fedora and told Daniel to stop. It was the hat. Hats tell a lot about a person. And this man’s hat said ‘Gypsy’ and it said ‘Leader’.

He sat in the lead wagon but he didn’t hold the lines, a younger man drove the horse. Women and children sat in the wagon bed. Daniel hollered (in Romanian) that we wanted to take some pictures. My favorite gypsy held up three fingers. I knew it meant ‘three lei’, the equivalent of a dollar. I nodded and held up three fingers, myself. The drivers halted the horses and I ran around to his side and began shooting.

There is no control in this situation. No communication. Just try to zoom in or get low or move to get the frame you want. The girls in the back of the wagaon came forward to get in the photo. The man in the fedora loved them. You could see it from the way the girls draped themselves over his shoulder. I didn’t want the girls in my photo. I didn’t want a photo of ‘daddy’ or ‘grandpa’ I wanted a photo of a Gypsy King. I got one or two shots that didn’t include laughing girls and then started shooting the man driving the rear wagon.

He wore a check flat cap. A flat cap is also good. He didn’t have the presence of the man in the fedora, but I got some shots and then paid them both. Everybody was happy.  I got what I wanted and you see it here. I could already see it in black and white. The gypsies told Daniel that they had another 30 or so km to travel before reaching their destination. It would take hours and hours to get there. Theirs was not the life of violins and dancing that we might think of.

Afterwards I kept thinking of the gypsies and how badly they wanted the money we gave them. (I gave them more than the 3 lei, BTW) Could they be that poor? Or is it that gypsies don’t spurn money no matter how little because they know if you get 3 lei here and 3 lei there, it all adds up.