Sponsored images from 
View allAll Photos Tagged IntimatePortrait
Light and shadow reveals what time has written through the years - a man who has mastered the art of aging with quiet strength and wisdom.
A Balinese girl carrying a flower basket on her head. Canang sari offerings are part of daily life in Bali, representing the devotion of Balinese Hindus to the gods and maintaining balance with the divine.
A young Kayan woman at a hill tribe village in northern Thailand. She is posing behind some locally made souvenirs that she is selling in her stall. The thanaka paste on her face is a dead giveaway that she is originally from Myanmar. The Kayan people have been migrating to Thailand for better economic prospects for a long time, but it has accelerated in recent years due to the ongoing conflict in Myanmar.
The Bhutanese people love colors and beautiful weaving. This is especially true come festival time, when dancers (often the local monks) dress up in ornate colorful costumes. The outfits often represent fierce gods, or animals, and the monks dance to folk music played with flutes, drums, symbols and yak-horns. As the dances unfurl before you, the flowing costumes become a swirl of bright colors, enticing you, and drawing you into the story.
Speak softly and carry a big eagle. This Kazakh woman and her golden eagle is the embodiment of beauty and strength.
An older sister holding her brother. The children were definitely a highlight for me in Bangladesh. They were everywhere, and they were fun to interact with and photograph. The median age in Bangladesh is about 28 years old, so the country skews young. From a population standpoint, the country has a demographic dividend - lots of young people to support the older generation. The reverse is true of many industrialized nations. The median age in North America is about 40, and Europe is closer to 45.
If I stuck a cigar in his mouth and told you that he's Cuban I bet you'd believe me. But no, he's actually Cambodian and the father of the man who was pictured climbing the palm tree in my previous image. He is in his 60s now and still climbs palm trees to collect palm juice which his wife then processes into palm sugar to sell.
Over breakfast, she glanced at the headlines—this morning it was about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a high-profile political figure who was fatally shot during a speaking event. In the photo, she’s seated by a window, hands clasped, eyes lifted—caught in a moment between the present and reflection. The light spilling in through the glass softens the scene: it’s not anger or shock exactly, but something quieter — pondering, absorbing, maybe unsettled. The patterned tabletop beneath her suggests that even in “ordinary” life, the weight of big events presses in.
The Eurasian features of this Kazakh girl really speaks to her people's pivotal place in the world - at the crossroads between Europe and Asia. This was shot inside a ger with natural soft light streaming through the doorway and from the ceiling. It's not Rembrandt lighting by any means, but I felt that the frontal lighting really brought out her delicate features.
----
Model: Dino
Photo: @giovanni_contarelli
©2025 All Right Reserved Giovanni Contarelli
Follow me on Flickr and
www.instagram.com/giovanni_contarelli/
www.facebook.com/giovanni.contarelli/
---
----
Model: Pamela
Photo: @giovanni_contarelli
©2025 All Right Reserved Giovanni Contarelli
Follow me on Flickr and
www.instagram.com/giovanni_contarelli/
www.facebook.com/giovanni.contarelli/
---
A moment of calm in the middle of nature’s tangled poetry.
Finding stillness, even when the world feels wild.
It is not unusual to find Buddhist monks in Cambodia who have tattoos, some to a fairly exensive part of their bodies. There isn't a negative connotation attached to inking the body as there is in other cultures. Most entered the monkhood with the tattoing already in place. Like me you may be wondering what the general view of Buddhism is on body modification, including tattoos. In the Theravada school of Buddhism, as is prevalent in many SE Asian countries, monks are typically expected to live a simple and austere life, and tattoos may be seen as a violation of these principles. But again, as the saying goes, it's complicated. Cultural practices and beliefs can vary widely from country to country, and individual monks may make personal choices that differ from the general guidelines.
Before words, before breath, there is a reach.
A tiny hand, searching instinctively for life, warmth, and love.
In this fragile moment, the story of existence begins — written not in ink, but in touch
Portrait of Rebecca, 2014
Tumblr:
Fb page:
www.facebook.com/tiziana.nanni.9?ref=tn_tnmn#!/pages/Tizi...
Polaroiders:
A Kazakh eagle hunter and his sister pose in a ger with his golden eagle in western Mongolia. The Mongolian Kazakhs were a nomadic people that used to roam freely between their native homeland of Kazakhstan, China's Xinjiang Province, and western Mongolia before national borders limited their mobility and they settled in Mongolia near the Russian border where they live a semi-nomadic lifestyle.
A sadhu in a reflective mood. These Hindu holy men have taken a vow of poverty and celibacy and dedicate their lives to meditation and contemplation. Their ultimate goal is to achieve moksha - liberation from the eternal cycle of death and rebirth.
This is a portrait of thought made visible.
The eyes lower, not in retreat, but in attention. Hands rise instinctively, tracing something unspoken, an idea, a feeling, a moment that has not yet found language.
There is a softness here that is not fragility, and a stillness that is not silence. The body becomes part of the thinking process, responding before the mind finishes its sentence. In this space, expression is private, inward, and deeply human.
The image lives in that fleeting threshold where emotion becomes awareness, where the internal world briefly surfaces before returning to itself.
I came across this girl at a rice drying yard hard at work with her little brother filling canvas sacks full of rice to be dehusked at a factory. She is obviously very beautiful, but what struck me was the incongruence of the scene - her lipstick and bright blue dress while working in the hot and humid weather in a dusty yard. But that is Bangladesh for you. You come across beautiful scenes in the most unexpected of places.
This Balinese Kecak dancer gave me a fierce look as I took his portrait while he was putting on his makeup. He plays the role of Rahwana (the evil king) in the timeless story of the Ramayana.
A Rajasthani girl at a desert festival in Jaisalmer. That blue sari against the yellow background is quite striking.
The Dao (Yao) ethnic group in north Vietnam are one of Vietnam's 54 officially recognized ethnic groups. Like many ethnic cultures, the Dao are not a homogeneous group and they are further divided into subcultures. These women belong to the Dao Thanh Y subgroup. They are famous for their colorful, intricately embroidered traditional attire, and a distinguishing feature is their red scarves or headwraps, which signify their identity.
Caught in a moment that feels both spontaneous and sacred, this frame reveals the beauty of imperfection. A hand shields the full story, yet what slips through—the glint in the eye, the curve of a smile—speaks louder than any posed portrait. There’s rawness here, and joy, and a kind of defiant authenticity. It’s not about hiding. It’s about choosing what to show—and that, in itself, is powerful. This is vulnerability wrapped in laughter, a glimpse into the spaces between what we guard and what we give away.