Laundry Art

Good images happen when you walk around with your camera.  I was walking with friends around downton Seattle and as we wandered past an alley I happened to look up and this is what I saw.  I believe, although I am not sure, that it was an urban art installation.  They way that the wires crossed back and forth from all different levels, the fact that every piece of laundry was white, it all spoke to and intentional piece of art.  I thought it was beautiful and your experience of it changed as you walked underneath and the lines and placement of the pieces changed as my perspective changed.  I knew that I wanted a photograph of it but it presented a challenging exposure situation.  I was standing in deep shadow with dark shadows falling on parts of both walls and a bright blue sky right behind the main subject.  I didn’t want the walls to go black because the sense of context that they give is really important so I took my initial reading using spot metering off of one of the shirts and then underexposed by one stop.  I wasn’t concerned about preserving detail in the sky because there was none, but I didn’t want the shirts to blow out the highlights.  Luckily the shirts were all in shadow so they weren’t too hot, exposure wise.  By going -1 on the exposure the walls were very dark in my original image but there was enough dynamic range in the file to pull the detail out in post processing.

-Russell Berg

www.seeingberg.com

The Sounds of Commerce

A slum behind the pasar (market) in Sentani, Papua, Indonesia. DiMAGE Z10 6mm at f/3.2 1/100 ISO 64The smell hits you first. You are wandering undering the unrelenting sun and as you approach the pasar, market, it is redolent with the odors of decaying meat, rotting garbage, and unwashed bodies. There is a strength to it that pushes back and leaves the uninitiated wondering if they can continue. The crush of bodies, the sounds of commerce, street style pushes in around you and you begin to wish you didn't need to shop here. Then you see a nod, and you stumble through a greeting in your halting Indonesian. They smile warmly help you correct your words and shake your hand. You wonder if there are any tomatoes this week and soon they are they pulling you through sprawling market to the one corner where they sit, decent sized tomatoes.

The market where we shopped for vegetables in Indonesia was a large collection of tin huts, lean-to rooves and tarp covered stalls. It was always full of life and sound and action. One day I wandered out the back and through the little alleys and homes that bordered it. I walked around a corner and glanced through the laundry hanging in front of me seeing a man in a motorcycle helmet coming home. I. Whipped up my camera and snapped just as he disappeared in a home.

-Russell Berg

On This Day

A Woman sets the laundry out to dry in Papua, Indonesia The woman walks to the fence with a heavy load of washing to dry.  On this day she has already walked miles to collect wood for the fires, prepared sweet potatoes for the family, tended the gardens and washed these clothes she now carries.  It is a day like any other; it is 10 am and the rest of her work day lies in front of her.  There is an exhaustion that lies deep within her but that exhaustion has come to define her and the strength in her hands, the perseverance in her spirit keeps her moving.

When we lived in Papua, Indonesia we spent some time in the interior in an area called Pyramid.  I was wondering around one morning and I came across this very interesting fence.  They make their fences with almost a thatched roof on top.  This prevents some of the water from reaching the fence and slowing down the process of rot.  I followed the fence for a while and up ahead I saw this woman putting out her wash.  I loved the way that the fence draws your eye to the splash of colour represented by the woman and her clothes and the way that the tree frames the other side of the image.

-Russell Berg