India · 2017
The Pitchfork
The pitchfork came up to his shoulder and the wood of it was worn pale where his hand had held it ten thousand times.
This story imagines, it does not document. It is what the photograph made me feel.
He was standing in the dark mouth of a storeroom, out of the Rajasthani sun, the red turban the only colour for meters in any direction. He had not put it on for me. It was simply how he dressed to do the work he had always done.
I asked, with my hands more than my words, whether I could make a picture. He set the fork against his shoulder, put his weight on one leg, and looked at me the way men who have worked the land their whole lives look at men who clearly have not.
Not unfriendly. Just measuring. He gave me the photograph the way you hand a stranger directions — briefly, accurately, and then he went back to what he was doing.
— Sefa Yamak, Istanbul-based portrait photographer. Pushkar, Rajasthan, 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.