Sunday, April 12, 2015

Photo Story: 4 Laotian Friends

This photos was made when I was up in a rural area of Laos a few years back. I was photographing the trees and greenery when these 4 boys wandered down the path I was on. I asked the boys to pose for me (Thai and Laos languages are similar) and made this shot as a result. As I recall they were all around 14-15 years old, nice friendly young men.

In the future I want to do more of this kind of everyday people portraiture with the large format cameras. August Sander was able to find beauty and humanity doing large format portraits during the 20s and 30s in Germany, why can't I do the same in Asia?

Tech Details: Linhof 4x5 with Tri-x exposed at 200ASA. 150mm lens at around 1/15 or 1/30 at F8-F11. I used a reflector in this photograph but am not sure how much it affected the lighting. A Pentax spot meter placed the faces on Zone VI.

4 friends in Laos jungle area, Laos 2012