Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Sidewalk Barber


Sidewalk Barber
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho

This group was about the least amicable of the people I tried to photograph. I found the “sidewalk barbers” to be really interesting to watch, and I came across many excellent (well 3) photo opportunities, but almost every time I asked to take a photo (I always asked first) they would give me an emphatic “No”. The only reason I got a photo of this guy was that my friend told him (unbeknownst to me until he was getting prepped) that if the barber would let me take a photo my friend would agree to pay for a haircut (I would not have agreed to this as there have been few photos that I felt were worth paying for [paying for photos builds a culture of “lets get the rich foreigners to pay to take photos of us”, seems like a bad precedent]). So I took a photo of this guy and he still wanted more money. I now wonder if the profession just draws in a certain type of personality. Another afghan friend said that maybe the barbers are ashamed of what they do but people doing far more menial work agreed to let me take photos no problem, perhaps there is a cultural element I am missing here.