Hi Natania,
This is a lovely photo. I love the colours and the textures, and if we removed the human element it would be a nice reminder of a foreign land. But this photograph is actually trying to tell the story of this person, and this is where I think it fails.
For some reason, most of us are more comfortable making photos in a foreign land than we are at home. I am not sure whether it's the travel itself that makes photographers more sensitive to their environment or whether there is a feeling of less accountability while we are abroad; either way, most of us make photos while travelling that we would be unlikely to make in our own backyard.
I think the second important consideration is why do are photographers more likely to put on a telephoto lens and make photos like this from 10 or 15 metres away? Is it because we do not want people, rich or poor, to know we are making a photo? Do we not want to engage with these people?
In general, most people choose to make the easy photos. And putting on a long lens and making a photo of an old woman sitting is an easy option. She was hardly running anywhere, and if you were travelling with a group of photographers my hunch is that you could all have achieved the same image by taking turns standing on the same spot.
So, why make easy images? Why make the same photos that pretty much every other tourist has made when they have travelled through these laneways?
As they say, take the road less travelled, and I think if you are a committed photographer you should be trying to make the photos that others do not see, or do not want to see!
There is a good photo in this situation, but it is the image that most photographers would prefer to ignore, is the photo of this woman’s eyes, and the lines on her face. Without changing lens, all you had to do was engage with this person… gently hold up a hand in gesture… empathise with her and chances are this photo would have infinitely more strength.
Many years ago I made a trip to New York to meet an agent, and one freezing cold morning while out exploring I encountered a poor person sitting barefoot on a street. I thought he must have been freezing too, until I realised he was sitting on a grille in the street that was venting warm air from a building’s air-conditioning system. Rather than just taking a photo and moving on, I stopped and talked to him. He had been a photographer in an earlier life, he pulled out of his old backpack a portfolio of his photos, and an old camera that had seen better days.
What was even more amazing though, was that as I sat there with him, people on their way to work stopped for a few moments to say hi. One person gave this poor guy a coffee… and a young girl walking to school with her mother gave him a small box containing a couple of donuts. In the space of a few minutes I learnt more about charity in that city than I ever would have just taking a photo from 15 metres away and walking on.
Happy travels,
Anthony