Asleep on the beach. Madras, India In 1992 Compassion International, the Christian humanitarian organization, asked me to go the Orient to document some of their work with sponsored children. Accompanying me on the trip was Doug LeBlanc, the editor of Compassion Magazine and the one who actually selected me for the assignment.
Doug and I have remained friends through the years, although our paths don't cross. We stay in touch by way of occasional emails, Christmas letters, and the like. He tells me he reads this blog.
We spent about two weeks in Madras, India, a week in Seoul, South Korea, and had a one-day layover in Singapore.
I had some free time in Madras, which I used to roam around the city and photograph the people. One morning I got up early, hailed one of the little three-wheeled taxis that swarm the streets, and headed for the beach.
I don't much like rising early, but that's when I often find my best pictures. There's a different, softer quality of light, a calm freshness in the air, and both people and nature seem more relaxed and approachable. On the city beach the pictures come early or not at all, because the fisherman launch their boats through the surf at first light and head out to sea.
I found this person apparently sound asleep on the beach. I've always thought if was a woman, but I really don't know, nor do I know why he or she was sleeping there. The person looked comfortable, so I quietly made the photograph with my Olympus OM2n (an especially quiet camera) and a 35mm f2 Zuiko lens on Fujichrome film and moved on.
Photograph and text copyright 2022, David B.Jenkins.
I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.
Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone
David’s post revives pleasant memories of our travels together back in 1992. He was more adventurous than I was about roaming Madras. I remember that some promotional literature described Madras as “the city of graciousness and spaciousness,” but it felt like any other smog-choked and hectic city to me then.
ReplyDeleteDavid and I were separated by crisis during our time in South Korea. My father, who had undergone bypass surgery before our trip began, had taken a serious turn for the worse and I was summoned home to tell him goodbye. Dad held on for both me and my brother to reach him in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and I was blessed to be present with him as he died.
David was a great traveling companion and he delivered the style of photography I sought on that journey. I’m thankful we’ve stayed in touch.