City - Near Mianning State - SICHUAN Country - China
About
Sichuan province in southwest China is one of the more remote and less wealthy parts of China, but is arguably the most beautiful area of the country. The province has mountains towering over 6000 metres, lush forests, pandas, rivers, lakes and gorges, and loads of different nationalities amongst the population.
These Sichuan portraits were taken in south Sichuan, one of the less traveled parts of the province and in small villages that see very few foreigners. I’m traveling in those parts right now and was lucky enough to stop in a couple of places where I managed to photograph these people, who all belong to the Yi nationality, a group indigenous to Sichuan with a rather interesting history. Of greatest interest was their social system, which up until recent decades featured a caste and slave system, which as I understand and according to the museum records, was dismantled after the founding of the People’s Republic.
There were plenty of opportunities for me to take more interesting photos of other Yi people, but I squandered my time a bit and the opportunities evaporated quickly. On the upside, I have one more week here and hope to see more of the same sort of people and landscapes.
This man put on a bit of a performance during my short stay in the village.
hi tim. i can speak some mandarin, enough to get around without being killed. but mandarin is spoken with a different accent in every part of china, meaning, i can be understood in one part of china but not in another. as for local languages, i know nothing of them. altho it would be interesting to learn some of them. as you may know, english is not widely spoken outside of the major cities in china.
as for my D70, i've only shot about 700 photos with it and having had it since june of last year, that's nothing. however, i've had long periods of no photography, and am now at the end of a nearly two month holiday. without a longer lens for the D70, i've relied on my fuji more, but now i've discovered that the D70 is wonderful for making the portraits i've been trying here.
as i mentioned before, perhaps we'll meet one day. either here or there.
Looks like your D70 is getting lots of use...I just love mine and have shot some 40,000 images since buying it. Do you speak the local language or mandarin or how do you communicate generally?
Excellent cature of this man's expression and highly interesting "about." Thank you for taking time to write it. I was also away, that's the reason I didn't respond to your comment sooner, although as an Israeli I was flattered by your recognizing Massada from my shadows & by undestanding their meaning. I was at a widened family gathering at Bella Vista, a bit north of Montevideo, Uruguay for almost a fortnight & to the chagrin of those gathered there, I refrained as much as I could from "cheese!" photos, chosing rather to do portraits that I would rather not post & atmosphere photos, some of which are already posted. Best regards & keep enjoying your travels, Rafi
Hi Karina.... thanks for the comment. Actually I intended for the background to be blurred. A blurred background has a strong effect in this type of photo.
I like how you have isolated him from the rest of the photo,yet giving us the feel of the environment. You have captured a very proud expression. Alison
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{K:89517} 2/6/2006
