View allAll Photos Tagged IntimatePortrait
February 10, 2008. Taken during the second weekend of Janusz Kawa's "Intimate Portraits" class at ICP. Key light is a large overhead beauty dish, a softbox below at minimum power providing fill.
I'm using different equipment from usual: This is shot with a medium-format camera, a Hasselblad 503 CW with a 150mm lens, on Fuji Reala 100 color negative, scanned, and edited in Photoshop (especially her hair color).
Side profile of a Tengger man enjoying his cigarette as he stood just inside the doorway to his house. Smokers are not just great photographic subjects, but their genuine enjoyment of the act allows their true self to shine through in the image.
in the dim glow of palmaâs quiet evening, i stumbled upon this old guitarist playing melodies that echoed through the cobblestone streets. his music felt like it belonged to the city, with every note carrying the stories of years gone by. the cigarette clung to his lips as effortlessly as his fingers danced on the guitar strings. it wasnât just a performance, it was a window into his soulâa glimpse into a lifetime spent in rhythm with the world. i couldnât help but capture this moment, where music, passion, and the essence of street life intertwined under the mallorcan night sky.
One custom of the Suri people that sets them apart from other tribes in Ethiopia is the practice of lip and ear plating. Lip plating is initiated by puncturing the lower lip with a sharp stick and inserting a small clay pellet. Over time the size of the clay material is gradually increased until a suitable size is reached. Most of the women had plates measuring somewhere between 4-6 inches in diameter, though I saw one woman with a plate the size of a small dinner plate. The lower incisors are removed in order to accommodate the plates, which along with the stretched lower lip essentially makes them incontinent of their saliva. When I was photographing this woman I noticed that she was pooling her saliva in her mouth and every few minutes had to stop, take out the plate, and spit out her saliva. The plates are not worn constantly, but only during special social occasions. For most normal activities, the plates are taken out and the stretched lower lip simply hangs or is folder inward.
Finally, let me dispel some myths about this practice. The practice is optional and not forced upon the women and girls by the men, and I saw plenty of women walking around without it. The origin of the practice is probably lost in time, but for them it is a matter of beauty, status, and ethnic identity. It was not started as a way to ward off slave traders as a popular myth states. The size of the plate is not directly correlated with the bride price, or the number of cattle that the man has to pay her family in order to marry a Suri woman. This woman was not wearing her ear plates at the time, as you can see from the stretched ear lobes.
She is the incarnation of the mythical Queen of Sheba. This beautiful Suri woman posed for a portrait on the river at sunset. She has chosen to have ear plates instead of lip plates (or both) as is the trend among the younger women. Love her Mohawk hairstyle.
While head shaving is optional, a majority of the Suri women have shaved heads. This is for practical as well as cultural and aesthetic reasons. They live in a hot humid climate, so a shaved head helps with cooling and reduces parasites such as lice, and is easier to maintain than long hair given their pastoral lifestyle. Among the women, a shaved head is the accepted beauty standard and they often decorate their scalps with painted designs or patterns using clay, chalk, ochre, flowers, beads or feathers.
Suri men engage in elaborate body painting using white clay skillfully applied with their hands and fingers. The practice is done as an expression of their individuality, identity, masculinity, and for daily aesthetic pleasure. I watched them apply the clay on themselves and on each other, and a still photograph really doesn't fully capture this dynamic living body-art, where beauty is temporary, identity is fluid, and the body is a canvas for creativity and social dialogue.
Observing this macaque in a quiet moment of rest, I was struck by the profound sense of contemplation in its posture and expression. There's something deeply moving about the way these intelligent primates pause and seem to reflect, sitting with such dignity and grace that speaks to our shared evolutionary heritage.
I chose dramatic black and white lighting to emphasize the sculptural beauty of this remarkable face and body language, creating an intimate portrait that transcends the typical wildlife photograph. The monochrome approach strips away distractions, focusing entirely on the character and emotion visible in this peaceful moment.
What captivated me was the universal quality of this contemplative pose - that sense of quiet reflection that we recognize across species boundaries. This macaque's serene composure reminded me of the complex inner lives these remarkable creatures possess, often hidden behind the bustle of their social interactions.
My intention was to capture more than just a wildlife photograph, but rather a portrait that reveals the individual personality and emotional depth of this remarkable animal, hoping to inspire greater appreciation for the thoughtful, sentient beings that share our world.
A revisited self-portrait — re-edited years later, where time rewrites the shadows and remembers the light.
The striking eyes of a Tenggerese boy at Mount Bromo. The Tengger people of east Java wear a distinctive traditional dress that reflects their Hindu heritage and highland culture. The men often drape a shawl over their shoulders to keep warm in the cool mountain climate, and many men wear a traditional headcloth folded and tied around the head.
A child monk at an orphanage in Myanmar's Inle Lake. Buddhist orphanages take in the sons of poor families and provide them with sustenance and an education. In return they grow up to be Buddhist monks serving the temple and local people in their area.
If you are a foreigner in a public area in Bangladesh, you will inevitably attract a small audience of gawkers. Mostly they just want to check you out, stare at you, ask you where you're from and see what you are doing. I was inside a factory shooting the workers when this little girl and her friends from the neighborhood walked in to see what I was doing. Her photogenic face caught my eye so I asked her to pose for me. LIght was streaming through holes in the corrugated iron roof above creating light rays from the smoke inside the factory. She clearly relished the spotlight while her friends standing in the doorway behind her watched with envy at the action. It’s a striking juxtaposition of her beauty against the stark backdrop of the factory.
A trio of Suri women share a floral motif for their headdress. This scene was backlit so a strobe and softbox was used to illuminate the subjects. The power of flash photography is the ability to control ambient light independently from the light on the subject. I set a high shutter speed to darken the background while the strobe lit up the three girls to achieve maximum subject separation. You won't find many images shot with flash in Ethiopia, or very many travel images shot this way for that matter, as shooting with a flash and softbox is an additional hassle factor and requires another dimension of photography skill and understanding of lighting patterns.
A novice monk sitting on one of the stupas at Plaosan Lor Temple on the island of Java. We think of modern day Indonesia as being predominantly Muslim, but the country has actually gone through a succession of religions, each one layered on top of the others (religious syncretism). First came Hinduism, followed by Buddhism, then Islam and later Christianity. Today almost 90% of Indonesians are Muslim, making Indonesia the country with the largest Muslim population in the world.
The hard lives of workers at a brick kiln on the outskirts of Dhaka. Dhaka has a number of these factories producing bricks for the construction industry. The workers make the bricks from mud, which are then dried in charcoal fired kilns on site, then the workers carry stacks of bricks on their heads from the ovens to the stacking area. They can balance up to 14 bricks (sometimes more) on their heads. If you consider that each brick weighs about 5 lbs on average, that's 70 lbs of axial loading on their cervical spine! To avoid the harsh midday sun they work from 2 AM to 10 AM and the men earn about $3 USD/day, while women and children earn less.
They both have toothless grins, but the love and joy between this grandmother and her granddaughter are palpable.
An intimate portrait of an elderly Indonesian man. In the carved lines of his face lives the poetry of time - each wrinkle a verse, each shadow a memory. Together they tell the unspoken stories of his life.
Shots from my portrait workshop
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The complete shooting on my Instagram and Facebook profiles.
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He may not be Humphrey Bogart, but his smoky silhouette has a kind of poignant cinematic feel to it that conjures up images of yesteryear.
In the soft glow of a private restroom, where muted marble walls absorb every secret, Weszu caught a single glance that feels like a stolen confession.
She tilts toward the mirror, phone raised, long dark hair falling forward like a velvet curtain. A black ribbed top dips low, revealing a playful Doraemon tattoo just above a golden butterfly pendant that rests perfectly at the curve. The fringed black mini skirt brushes her thighs, adding a hint of wild texture. Cool light kisses her pale skin, carving gentle shadows that deepen her subtle smile and the calm intensity in her eyes—creating an atmosphere of effortless confidence, tender yet untamed.
© 2019 Weszu – All Rights Reserved
Contact: weszu@globaltakedown-center.com
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