The Sweetgrass Basket Maker

Carrying on a 300 year old tradition

There is a 300 year old tradition of basket making among Gullah people in the coastal areas of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Gullah are the descendents of slaves brought from West Africa to work on the rice plantations. Originally the baskets were used to winnow the rice as well as for household use in the slave homes and maybe in the plantation owner’s kitchen as well. The baskets feel as strong as steel. And it is said that they can be used to hold water. 

I saw a lovely one in a slave cabin museum. It was the shape of the dough tray my grandmother used to make biscuits and was called a “Moses basket”. A newborn would nestle in its oval shape just fine. 

I have tried to photograph the basket makers in Charleston and knew that there was a good chance that I would be refused. But Wilhelmenia graciously allowed me to take her photo. She told me that she is a minister as well as a basket weaver. Wilhelmenia radiated the charm of the old south. I enjoyed printing a copy of this portrait for her. I hope she will like it.   

The only thing I did here that I can tell you about was that I burned in the basket. By the time I got Wilhelmenia’s face right, the basket was washed out. I burned it in with the burn tool which has been greatly improved in CS5. You want to direct your viewer’s eye to what you want them to notice (the focal point) and you do that by controlling the lights and darks and burning the edges of your photos.

I rarely pose my subjects. My main reason for this is that once I start posing people it seems to me that their expression becomes wooden. I know that is not the case if you have a professional model, but most people seem to freeze up, especially women. The other reason I don’t pose people is that I don’t really know how due to lack of practice. Why am I telling you this? Because if I had posed Wilhelmenia, I would have made sure to have both of her hands in the photo. I could have done this merely by reducing the amount of zoom or stepping back as well. Also, I was lucky and got her nose just inside the line of her cheek (on the right side of her face). If I hadn’t her nose would have seemed disproportionate. I can’t always see tiny details like that on my LCD screen, so if I had posed her, I’d have been sure of getting it right instead of trusting to the god of photography.