Wanderer

This was my very first portrait made in West Java, Indonesia. When I arrived, my subject was resting quietly near a fence. There was no crowd, no distraction, only the two of us and a sky heavy with cloud. For a portrait, that sky was a gift.

I wanted the photograph to feel open and slightly dramatic, so I moved him closer to the fence and began working with a super wide-angle lens. The lens allowed me to include more of the sky, but it also meant I had to be careful with distance, angle and gesture. Too much direction would have made the picture feel staged.

While I was photographing him, I told him to pretend I was not there. He nodded, changed his posture, and slowly became more relaxed. The tension in his body eased. His expression became quieter, less aware of the camera.

“I told him to pretend I was not there.”

I lowered the camera angle to give more weight to the sky. The clouds began to shape the mood of the portrait, while the fence and the wide perspective gave the frame a sense of distance. He was standing in front of me, yet his mind seemed to be somewhere else.

That was the moment I was waiting for. His gaze drifted away, no longer fixed on me or the camera. It carried a feeling of wandering, as if he had stepped briefly out of the scene and into his own thoughts.

When I saw that look, I knew I had the photograph.