LEICA M9
LEICA M9
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THE LEICA M GALLERY
M as in memorable moments.
Dr. William Palank, Refugees in Pink, Mae Sot, 2008-05-31 Leica M8 - Summilux 35mm f/1,4 ASPH
Having been denied a Visa to travel into Burma from Thailand after the 2008 cyclone, I was strolling along a concrete levee that separated Mae Sot from the pebble laden embankment of the Moei River that narrowly divides the two countries. From the recesses of a shabby tent in a small Burmese refugee community near the river, at 100 meters, I spotted a small face covered with Thanaka Cream (used by Burmese women for 2000 years) peak out quickly. Scurrying over the pebbles to the encampment, imagine my surprise when I found two shy young sisters identically dressed who were huddled in the back of the tent. Their proud mother gently pushed them out into the sunlight as so I could take their image with my ever present companion while on assignment, a Leica M8 with 35mm Summilux ASPH lens. I’ll never forget their eyes.
Having been denied a Visa to travel into Burma from Thailand after the 2008 cyclone, I was strolling along a concrete levee that separated Mae Sot from the pebble laden embankment of the Moei River that narrowly divides the two countries. From the recesses of a shabby tent in a small Burmese refugee community near the river, at 100 meters, I spotted a small face covered with Thanaka Cream (used by Burmese women for 2000 years) peak out quickly. Scurrying over the pebbles to the encampment, imagine my surprise when I found two shy young sisters identically dressed who were huddled in the back of the tent. Their proud mother gently pushed them out into the sunlight as so I could take their image with my ever present companion while on assignment, a Leica M8 with 35mm Summilux ASPH lens. I’ll never forget their eyes.
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More images captured with the M System in LFI gallery
It was drizzling. I ran across the road looking for shelter, pass many women still persisting with selling their wares in the rain. Then I heard a gentle voice from behind me saying, "Madam, do you want some bananas, I only have one bunch left..." She was barely 10 years old. Many children her age and younger are out on the streets, doing whatever works, trying to make ends meet for their families.
In late May a circus came to my city. It was a proud little circus from Latin America, with only 15 people and a few animals. They called it 'Americano'. Every day I visited the circus with my camera. At first I refrained from taking pictures as I wanted them to know me as a person and not a photographer. They told me their stories, we became friends and, on the last day, I used my camera to capture the memories of this quirky little circus, the "Circus Americano" and the people who worked there.
When I moved to Northern California, from Southern California, I was surprised to see so many abandoned and rotting buildings in the landscape. One day, while passing by one, I started questioning why it had ended up that way. What it may have been used for at one time, what it looked like when new. Who had been born it it, lived in it and died in it. What sorrow and joy had emanated from it and what stories of tears and laughter it had felt and heard.
Laura was a friend of my sons since the age of three. At 24 she became my model for a series of more than 100 human facial expressions. She was incredibly fast to interprete my thoughts. She died two years later of brain tumor. For the 4th anniversary of her death, this is my hommage to Laura.
I watched her, while she – obviously shortsighted – was looking at the glasses of her dreams … I took the picture within seconds.
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