India · 2017
Hide-and-Seek
This is the same man, a little later, hiding behind his own hands.
This story imagines, it does not document. It is what the photograph made me feel.
The laughing one. The glasses, the orange cloth, the white beard — the moment I saw the hands come up I knew it was him, because a man does not cover his face that way unless he is enjoying it. He left a gap between two fingers and watched me through it. A ring on one hand, red and white, catching the last of the light.
It was a game. He would hide, I would wait, he would open his hands a crack to see if I was still there. I was still there. People had probably been pointing cameras at this man for forty years and he had turned it into something to play with rather than something to endure.
I made the frame through the gap in his fingers. One eye, looking straight back at me, still laughing.
There is a whole afternoon in two photographs of this man. This is the half where he hides.
— Sefa Yamak, Istanbul-based portrait photographer. Varanasi, autumn 2017. 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.