Varanasi, India · 2018
The Long Walk
The staff in his hand had a shine that comes from only one thing — a palm closing on the same wood, the same place, for years.
This story imagines, it does not document. It is what the photograph made me feel.
I found him standing against the carved stone of an old temple, and for a moment I could not separate him from it. The figures cut into the wall behind him were worn soft by centuries. He had the same quality. Something that had been here a long time and was in no hurry to explain itself.
When I stopped, he stopped. Stood straighter. Turned his face to the lens without being asked. He had been photographed before, clearly, and had made his peace with it long ago.
The white dots ran across his cheeks and brow in a pattern I did not understand and did not ask about. The coins at his neck. The blade held loosely at his side. None of it was for show. All of it was for something I was standing outside of.
He let me make a few frames in black and white, the carved gods watching over his shoulder. When I was done he laughed once, short, as if the whole thing had been mildly funny — and then he was walking again.
— Sefa Yamak, Istanbul-based portrait photographer. Varanasi, winter 2018. From the SADHUS 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.