Portrait #2—The Fruit Vendor
A local Fruit Vendor, Kurdistan, Iraq
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A year of 50 posed portraits with only one light; a project designed to improve my camera work while blessing the people I encounter. You can see older portraits here, read the rules of the project here, or leave a comment below with your feedback.
Sidewalks, Dead Cats and Sunsets
Our office sits midway up a hill. After work each day, I walk to the top and turn left to make the 7 minute walk home. I don’t really remember ever making this walk. I can’t tell you much about what is between my house and the office. I may as well have teleported every time. But on this evening I glanced to my right before heading home.
This is a photo of the kind of stuff I’ve been missing. After looking right one day, I noticed the sunset looking more beautiful than usual. So I took this photo.
But I’ve come to realize it’s often this beautiful, I just wasn’t paying attention. I also noticed a dead cat on the sidewalk the day before this, but I doubt many of you hate cats as much as I do so I went with the sunset.
The Langa
See how happy these guys are to be working in The Langa?!
If you walk past the big mosque, into a small produce section and then hang a sharp right before the sweetshop, you’ll find yourself in a truly magical place.
Cayla making ice cream!
It’s a perennial garage sale minus all the stuff I hate about garage sales. No crowds of psychotic people pulling hair and calling “dibbs on that whole table” at 4am. No impossible-to-find residential locations. It’s always in the same, labyrinth-like maze deep within the bazaar, which gives it an insider feel. Like a super-hip club for old ladies.
Cayla has harvested numerous goodies from The Langa: a popcorn maker, all kinds of super-nice, name-brand clothing (most things cost just a dollar or two), and loads of other stuff. But the best thing she’s found to date was an ice cream maker. My crazy, cooking genius-of-a-wife has now whipped up 5 pints of homemade ice cream, and every pint is more incredible than the last!
For the first time (ever?), I actually look forward to shopping. I run out of steam after about 10 minutes, but that’s still 10 minutes more than ever before. I can’t wait to see what we’ll find next!
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