Dream Trip 2009

Great Travel Moment

I photographed this man in a remote village of Kenya, sitting outside the house of the bride whose marriage I was to capture with my camera. When I look at him I see stories never told. We did not attempt to communicate in Kiswahili, but his eyes spoke of all they might have seen; of a generation coming and going, Indigenous spiritualities uprooted, forests cleared, children becoming men and women, babies being born, the elderly dying. His charming hat shadows a wide worry line across his brow. I wonder what he is thinking. I treasure this crossing of paths and the image that came with me. There is something very human about this man, sitting as he is against a brick wall, without pretense to smile. He is like clouds unfolding into unforeseen shapes when I imagine the stories he might tell.