Day seven notes: 1115. Wednesday. Day seven. In my room in the village having a spell. The house here does not have glass windows. Instead, the windows are protected by shutters which open out by hand. Power here is intermittent and this family runs an inverter to trap the power when it comes on. Otherwise, the power is very unreliable. About 20 metres from my window yesterday a man was ploughing the field with his buffalo. Much of the field preparation is done by buffalo, though tractors are now also being used by some. Its wonderful to see old men from the village take their buffalo down to the river of an evening to wash their buffalo. They do it with much love it seems. The river is used communally for bathing and washing. People dont defalcate in the river it appears. I can imagine that it must be polluted badly, though I had to wash in the river yesterday and will do again today. This morning we rose at 0415 and were on our way to the coal field at about 0445. I still have my guide from the village to smooth the way and protect me in the event that something goes wrong. I started off photographing a woman coking the coal this morning before sunrise. As the coal finishes the evening burn the cokers start to rake the coal out of the fire to allow it to breathe and the coal fire to go out and cool. Once that is done, the cycle wallahs then come in and collect the coal from their piles. They each seem to have piles and not Im not sure how that is all worked out. For the rest of the morning I photographed the cycle wallahs loading their bicycles. Thats an impressive sight. Yesterday there would have been 250 to 300 people doing that, plus one buffalo and cart team. Most of the coal is carried out in old chaff bags or something similar. The first bag is loaded up meticulously right to the top. Then, they manage to load even more coal so that the bag is more than overflowing. As I sayy, this is done meticulously. Once the coal is stacked beyond the top of the bag they somehow get it perfectly round and then bind it with rope so it doesnt go everywhere. This big bag goes perpendicular to the frame of the bike and between the top bar and the v frame if that makes sense. I cant think of better words to describe it. This bag then acts as the basis for the rest of the loading as other bags can be stacked perpendicular to that and on top of it on either side of the bike. I didnt get any cracker images this morning but trying my best. Key is to relax and not try to hard. The best images come almost when you stop trying and go completely on feel which is what Im trying to get to. What will be will be. No mining today in the underground as everyone is at the festival to commemorate the death of the man who was killed some years back. So that will mean no coking in the morning. Hopefully we can get the cycle wallahs coming from another area. 1845. Pretty cruisey day which is what was called for. For much of the afternoon we stayed at the house in the village. I backed up images and started editing the early stuff from the shoot. Still dont feel that Ive really nailed much which is stressing me. We attended the fair in the village briefly for the man that was killed. There were probably a thousand people or more. I tend not to get so excited at those things. Too many people and hard to isolate subject matter. Late in the afternoon we went for a walk to a nearby village. The people here are mainly tribal. The village we visited consisted mainly of small mudbricks. Some of the houses were barely chest high and one was covered only by a tarp. Ive found I attract quite a range of reactions when people see me in these villages. Some, mainly the elderly, walk up and grab my hands, kiss them and then pull them up to their heads. Others run away. Others dont look and walk quickly past. Its as if they are afraid in many cases. Most do not see hardly any white people. So shooting this evening - it was more blasting out some cobwebs that I feel are still there - was some of the most difficult village work I have done. Why? Because the people were so timid and frightened in many cases. Sure, there was the language barrier, but thats not unusual in these places. In some countries people love the camera and smile. In others, like Cameroon, people can get almost savage. So they are not afraid of you which makes the approach quite easy. They dont run away. Here, it was the approach that was difficult. You couldnt just walk up to them. It was like approaching a timid animal - a dog perhaps - that runs away as you get close. You had to walk up slowly. Then, you had to get them comfortable with a camera. I didnt point it at them. I showed them previous photos. It was only then that you could get started. Some of the women were very beautiful. The colours in their clothing was wonderful. Generally, once I got started everyone relaxed and had a lot of fun. We shot right up until dark. Ive noticed that people here seem to age much more quickly than in other places I have been to. An 18 year old girl looks at least 30. Same with the men. One guide the other day looked 50 but instead was only 32. Amazing. A good day. Im trying to stay focused though. Its a visual smorgasboard here and there are so many things to point the camera at. But Im trying to focus on what Im here for so as to not get distracted. Weather is proving a little tricky which is characteristic of the change of seasons anywhere in the world. But that creates opportunities as much as it does challenges.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 03:15:39 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015