A Private Conversation
Moscow 2009
What are these women talking about? The gesture of the woman on the left says that she is revealing details: exacting, precise, important details. The woman on the right is so fascinated that she is compelled to cover her mouth, which we imagine is gaping in surprise.
The first thing I thought of when writing the caption was ‘gossip’ or ‘the gossips’ but that could be slander. The women might be discussing a friend’s special recipe for piroshki. Doesn’t the woman on the left seem to be saying “and add only the tiniest bit of sugar to the dough…” And the woman on the right has to raise her scarf to her mouth because she has never heard of such a thing and her mouth is watering.
Street photography can be fun. I’ve noticed much of it focuses on the homeless. I don’t find those photos uplifting or interesting. Once my friend and I drove to Los Angeles to an exhibit of street photography from the 1930’s. We were in a good mood as we drove down, looking forward to lunch as well as the exhibit. Luckily we ate lunch first because looking at the drab, dreary photographs of unhappy, unlucky people in black and white ruined our day.