That One Photograph
Provided by: David H. Hessell
It always comes down to one image. I've been doing this for more than twenty years, thirty if you count the trips I took when I had no idea how to use a camera. Thirty years of travel photography and of all the photographs I take on any given trip, it always comes down to one favorite image. The image that captures the essence of the adventure, the journey, the experience. One trip, one image.
Yes, I have several images that I like from each adventure, but there is always that one I say is my favorite. The one I think of when I think of the trip. The image. Not the experience of actually taking the image, just THE image. I think of that image when I think, or am asked about, any given trip. Funny how that works. When I think of Peru, I think of the little girl, "my" little girl.
Never said a word to her. Her mother was trying to sell me a necklace or something. There were two dugout canoes and several women making their sales pitch ... I had no idea what they were showing me, I saw the girl. Well, and I saw the paddle. The girl caught my attention, but the paddle made me take the picture. I was in the Amazon Rain Forest and the dugout canoe was a symbol I wanted to capture on film. The canoe itself, and the large, wide paddles I had seen everyone using. Very unique, to me anyway. It was my first time on the Amazon and the canoe and an odd shaped paddle became symbols of the river itself. To me, they say AMAZON. In capital letters!
Enter the young girl and her custom fitted paddle. I loved it. Handmade junior sized Amazon paddle, a one-of-a-kind. I had to take the picture. It became my favorite.
True, it is my experience, my memories, but is it a good picture? I believe it is. What makes it good? First, as a photograph, we must look at the light. Photography is light. Period. Nice light. We were tucked up under some trees off a small lake, and the trees soften the light and danced off the water filling in some of the shadows on the girl's face. Look at the girl's face. Where is the light coming from? Now, look at the other side of her face ... See the "fill-light"? Nice.
The girl herself. I always tell my photography students that you can't go wrong with kids and/or pets. She was worth taking the picture all by herself. Did I? No. I had to place her in her world with her paddle. The dugout canoe and that paddle made it the "Amazon Girl," and not just "Young Girl in Boat."
How about the background? Her expression? The tight cropping? Her body language? The colors? Very important. These are all elements that add up to the total image. They are the setting, she is the main character, and the paddle, well, let's call the paddle the climax, if I borrow freely from the literary world. Nothing is in the image that I don't want it the image. That is my role. That is the artist in me, telling you, the viewer, what I think is important, and what I want you to look at. Photographers subtract, painters add. I call it a "clean image." As the artist, I subtracted the "clutter" around this beautiful young girl and made her the center of my attention, and in doing so, made her your center of attention. Her and the paddle. I hope her mother forgives me, but I just had to cut her out of the frame.
Is it a good photograph? Is it more than the girl and her paddle? Does it evoke an emotion? Does the eye contact draw you into the subject? Does the light enhance the image? Do you like it? Does the paddle add to the photograph? Should it be my favorite image from more than 25 rolls of film? Does it say "AMAZON" to you? Is it worth me writing about? Is it worth the fuss?
Yes.
To me anyway. And that is the key. It is MY favorite image from the 400 plus images I kept from my week on the Amazon. I will remember the river, my week in the Rain Forest, and my trip to Peru by this one image. Funny how that works. The Amazon Girl. I saw her about five minutes tops, but the moment, her expression, and yes, even that darn paddle will be with me for many, many years to come.
I love photography. I love the power of photography. I love the power of the photograph. And I hope to for many years to come.
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