India · 2018
The Veil
She pulled the cloth across her face the second she saw me, and the cloth was the most alive thing in the lane.
This story imagines, it does not document. It is what the photograph made me feel.
Great printed blooms in pink and violet and green, a colour that does not apologise for itself, and her hand holding it shut — henna still dark on the skin, a stack of red-and-gold bangles at the wrist. Behind her, a worn stone archway and the cool dark of a doorway.
It was not fear. I have learned the difference. It was something closer to play, or to a private arithmetic of who gets to see what, that I will never fully understand from the outside.
So I have no face to show you. Only the cloth, the hand, the pattern, and the decision. And I have kept the frame for years, because what she chose to hide told me more than most of the faces people agree to give.
— Sefa Yamak, Istanbul-based portrait photographer. Rajasthan, 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.