People, Faces, Things

Among the things I really enjoyed in Israel were the people. Not getting run over by the cab drivers or pushed around the bus by rushed masses, but the individual faces. I spent a large part of my time out people-watching.

All those 18- and 19-year-old soldiers drew my eyes to them in their olive green and khaki uniforms and the rifles swinging alongside their legs. The juxtaposition of the weapons and the youthful faces was alarming at first, but in time I think I got somewhat used to it, or as much as you can.

Once I got past the big guns, I payed more attentions to the faces and builds and walks of the young men and women wandering the streets of Jerusalem in uniform. I think my interest in portraiture has given me a different sort of appreciation for "looks" in general. I have a tendency now to frame people's faces in a mental lens, imagine a snapshots. The snapshots are also little bits of stories that I get to explore in my own time, as well. It makes more sense 65-year-old woman surrounding by grocery bags on a bus to be "beautiful" when thought about as such.

Actually, I realized that most of the shots I took of people in Israel (see links on the side, especially "Black, White, and Turn"), aside from family, were of people at least a little older than I am. There's just so much more interesting in creases and folds and eyebrows and anger, so much more to tell.

Anyway, this has grown to be a bit of a ramble. All I meant to say is that Israel is a country choc full of beautiful people, conventionally so and otherwise. I hope I have the same sort of opportunities for portraiture here as I did on those crazy freakin' buses.