India · 2018
Don't
The hand came up open, palm toward me, fingers spread, a red stone on one of them.
This story imagines, it does not document. It is what the photograph made me feel.
I have never been sure what she meant by it. Stop. Wait. Not yet. Or maybe none of those — maybe just a hand, raised the way you raise a hand at someone across a courtyard. She was half-smiling the whole time, which is what has kept me from deciding.
If it was a refusal it was the gentlest one I have ever been given. White hair, a red mark between the brows, gold at the nose. She did not turn away and she did not come closer. She held the hand up and held my eye and let me decide what to do about it.
I made one frame and then I lowered the camera, because whatever the hand meant, it felt like the answer was up to me, and the polite thing was to stop.
— Sefa Yamak, Istanbul-based portrait photographer. Tamil Nadu, southern India, winter 2018. From the INDIA series.
Archival pigment print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308gsm · Signed & numbered on verso · Certificate of Authenticity included
If this photograph interests you, write to me directly. I'll answer any questions about print sizes, paper, and process. Studio visits in Istanbul are also available.