Heavy Laborer With Sun Protection, Bangkok

This young woman is a heavy, menial laborer whose job was to pick up

large pieces of broken concrete and stone and carry them by

wheelbarrow. However, as a woman, she was not to be denied her

youth or her beauty; she chose the most beautiful, multicolored

scarf and flashed the most beautiful smile as she went about her

backbreaking labor. Your ratings and critiques and invited and most

welcome for this 'street portrait'. (If you rate harshly or very

negatively, please submit a helpful and constructive comment/Please

share your superior knowledge to help advance my photography).

Thaks! Enjoy! John

Thanks for the very nice compliment (and nice rating also -- you don't have to rate so highly if you don't feel like it, I won't be offended).

Shooting this woman was a challenge. Her head scarf (against the hot sun, even in January) and her menial job as a wheelbarrow rolling laborer, suggests that she should have been broken by the job (and may yet be), but she projected a certain beauty, and that is the sort that 'lights up' in the presence of a camera (some women just know that they have an 'inner beauty' as well as physical beauty.)

But framing this 'street portrait' for a proper background was a challenge, and ultimately I cropped some confusing background from the top (very little, and a continuation of what's at the top already). I would have preferred a plainer, darker background or other human figures, but got construction figures, which are not explained by the portrait.

I expected a bunch of 4/5 ratings, and am pleasantly surprised. It just goes to show, one has to go with one's instincts, although this is far from 'original' -- I just like to post a pretty photo every once in a while, even if it does score low on the scale for 'originality' -- the opposite of how I usually score.

For a menial laborer, this woman has quite a set of beautiful teeth -- she must have some very good dental care, as teeth like that seldom come from birth without some 'adjustments' occuring by young adulthood.

Somehow, I admired the 'mettle' of how this woman carried herself, and maybe that is what carried through in her photo -- what I 'captured.'

John

This woman actually was pushing a wheelbarrow loaded with debris broken up by a jackhammer, and wheeling it down a long wharf to a dumping place when I photographed her numerous times -- all with good results, as well as a fellow worker, another attractive young woman with different headgear. In looking at her smile and her choice of headgear and her lack of personal grooming (no plucked eyebrows, little attention to 'modern' Western grooming) it appears that this woman is entirely 'natural' and represents a truly attractive woman, probably with education to the legal limits but no more, ever and limited hopes in life, except to push a wheelbarrow, then to marry and have babies.

She is, however poor she may be or low wages she was working for, very rich in spirit, I think. I think that is the beauty I captured as well as some physical beauty.

John

very nice colourful shot with a great smile...:)

I love this photograph. Its so natural and true to her. Poverty does not mean that you have to live a drab existence. Visiting the slums in my city I have seen the most vibrant colors, used far more meaningfully than in the swankiest of homes and hotels...

This scarf is for protection from one of the hottest suns on the planet -- in Bangtkok in the summer where she is doing manual labor.

You are right about colors and the human spirit.  Sometimes the only luxury people have is a splash of vibrant color -- well said.

john

John (Crosley)