India · 2018
The Invitation
One eye, one nose ring, and a great deal of dark cloth pulled down close around the rest.
This story imagines, it does not document. It is what the photograph made me feel.
She found me before I found her. I was working the street and felt the look first, the way you sometimes do, and when I turned she was already holding my gaze from inside the hood of her shawl. She did not arrange herself so much as decide, the way you decide to let someone in.
The light came across just the one side of the face and let the rest go. I have always trusted that — a face does not need to be fully lit to be fully there. Hers was entirely there, in a single eye that did not blink and did not soften.
Three frames. She watched the back of the camera once, nodded, and that was the whole conversation. An invitation and its acceptance, with not one word in it.
— Sefa Yamak, Istanbul-based portrait photographer. Mathura, spring 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.