Tag: portrait

  • My brother Ramón.

    My brother Ramón.

    Ramon calls me “hermano” because of our shared faith. I’ve told him some of my personal burdens, and he always has an encouraging word. Our family has strong connections, so when I caught him with the sun on his face as he waited for his grandson by the school gate, I knew he was genuinely…

  • Woman with bicycle

    Woman with bicycle

    She and her husband travel around Europe on bicycles, returning home to earn enough money to leave again.  I encountered them at a Christmas fair in Rincón de la Victoria, near Málaga, just back from a trip through France.

  • Old man with cane/ Málaga, Spain

    Old man with cane/ Málaga, Spain

    I was embarrassed to ask this man to take his picture. His face was half paralyzed as if from a stroke, but he was willing and even looked off to one side when I asked. A few weeks later I returned with a print to give as thanks. This time a woman approached me and asked what…

  • Pepa – Seamstress / Málaga, Spain

    Pepa – Seamstress / Málaga, Spain

    My son needed a suit adjusted. (You’re wondering why a seventeen-year-old kid would wear a suit. It’s for a play.)  He’s fairly thin for his height so the jacket, trousers, vest and shirt all needed some tailoring. No problem for Pepa. A few pins here and there and she was done. A week and a…

  • Janette – Hillsboro, Kansas, USA

    Janette – Hillsboro, Kansas, USA

    Her earliest memories are of dust clouds blasting her Texas Panhandle home, and her mother wrapping the sugar bowl in a towel, only to find brown dust among the treasured crystals. She’s lived in four different countries, adapting to life in large South American cities and the primitive Amazon jungle, and all with a husband and five…

  • María – Baker / Málaga, Spain

    María – Baker / Málaga, Spain

    Manolo came into the store and María slipped him a couple of hard rolls. Then she scolded him for something he had said, just like a mother would. Manolo is a hoarder and he smells really bad. But María is really kind to him. She is kind to lots of people. Once she told me that there…

  • Enrique – Shepherd / Horcajo de la Ribera, Spain

    Enrique – Shepherd / Horcajo de la Ribera, Spain

    Enrique and other men and boys from his village herded sheep ten months of the year, in Castilla León in the summer and Extremadura in the winter. In his early days they moved the sheep on foot and horseback, and later in trains and trucks. I found Enrique enjoying the sun on his daily walk outside the village, now only…

  • John, saddlemaker – Wamego, Kansas

    John, saddlemaker – Wamego, Kansas

    The windows were grimy and the weathered boards hadn’t seen paint in decades.