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A View From Sarah’s Kitchen
Continue ReadingI made this still life picture during a visit to Clarksdale, Mississippi at night from inside a soul food restaurant doubling as a nightclub — a mythical location in the homeland of Delta Blues now permanently shuttered, its founder Mizz Sarah deceased. The blues we heard that evening seemed a gritty, deep-feeling music. I believe […]
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An Anomaly Below the Mokattam Hills
Continue ReadingOccasionally you come across something which — at least in your own mind — does not belong in the place where you find it, an anomaly. While wandering the Cairo Necropolis, an inhabited complex of tombs and catacombs in the medieval quarter of the city, I noticed this bedraggled poster seeming unusual in a Muslim […]
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Ebullience, Page 2
Continue ReadingSuch jaunty enthusiasm lies beyond my emotional range; indeed, it might transcend the abilities of all but a tiny percentage of mortal creatures. I was that odd child not entertained by clowns — instead was afraid of them — finding their androgyny and buffoonish behavior unnerving. Throughout history these tramps and jesters have been allowed […]
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Attending My First Khat Gathering
Continue ReadingA linguistic note: On the Horn of Africa people pronounce khat like our sleeping apparatus: Cot. Across the Gulf of Aden in Sana’a, Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula one pronounces a short ‘a’ with a hard ‘g’ in front: Gat. On arriving in Yemen I enrolled at a language institute. Western students of Arabic mingled […]
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Looking For The Essence
Continue ReadingDuring a change in my life I found work in this isolated place where I had no personal connections. I knew the location from reading a map, but had not investigated the district further. I had not seen my future workplace, and never inspected beforehand the apartment provided to me as part of my compensation. […]
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Born With Charisma
Continue ReadingUnlike my habitual portrait subjects — most of whom are strangers or brief acquaintances — I know a lot about this fellow. In fact I helped raise him up from a tiny critter with a tadpole look and a cone-shaped head. I caught him as he slithered out from his mother’s body, and looked […]
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You’re Definitely Not In Kansas Anymore
Continue ReadingOn your first journey beyond the Western World even routine situations will flummox you. You cannot avoid these gopher holes despite prior study and meticulous planning. If you stay gone long enough — exposing yourself nakedly and with bravery — hard experience will shatter preconceptions, adding a new and more spacious dimension to your character. […]
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Black and White Purity
Continue ReadingIf you survey current, ultramodern monochrome photos you will find an abundance like mine above, where near-coal blackness juxtaposes with higher-valued tones without much progression in between. This captures a West African musician at the climax of his performance; however usually the subject is landscape, cityscape or architecture, made with equipment designed to produce […]
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Calls To Prayer On Testosterone
Continue ReadingHaving lived in Egypt above a neighborhood mosque for nearly two years, I was accustomed to hearing the daily call to prayer at first light. I could sleep through it after a while despite its amplified intrusion into my room. My first awakenings in Yemen — in the ancient part of the capital city — […]
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Another From the Island of Serendip
Continue ReadingLike the three princes of Serendip, I often find what I am not looking for. I was walking along the Gulf of Finland searching for the simple house Peter the Great designed for himself — away from the monumental palace at Petergof — when I entered this scene. I felt as if I had stepped […]
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