Way Back Machine: China and Tibet

What a difference twenty years can make.

While sifting through the photo files for a talk I was planning on Tibet, I was struck by how far I’ve come in all this time. Before abstract photography took hold, before the advent of the digital camera, and a good while before I had a focus for my work or really knew what I was doing, I was a student at the San Francisco Art Institute. At this point, I was still an indecisive printmaking/sculpture/photography major with a failing marriage and a chance to spend two months in China and Tibet. Yes please!

I was never a technical perfectionist. And it shows. Still, with all the technical issues (why did I ever insist on shooting Ilford XP2?), some of the images I shot here are still among my favorites. So tonight I’m sharing a trip in the way back machine to my first serious body of work…

I spent a lot of time just walking and thinking. On one of those walks, as I passed an alley, this little girl tried to take me by surprise with a full on barrage of imaginary bullets. I think she was more surprised when I started shooting back with the camera. The gunfight stopped and she struck a pose.

 

Having a guide was no guarantee that we could figure out what was happening. When it came to explaining things that might be distasteful or politically tricky, sometimes there simply was no answer for us. Why were there people living in a tent in the rubble here? I still don’t know.

Of all the pictures I have taken, this might just be my favorite. I turned the corner, had my camera already set, and he looked at me at just the right time, and with just the right expression. Magic.