The Women and Children of Tanzania

Student from Imbafi Secondary school

Out of the hustle and bustle of the city it is easier to meet people. Stopping by the road side in a village you find children gathering around; curious and shy playing for the camera and running to see the pictures you have taken. Sitting in the shade of a tree women are cooking or at the water spring they are filling their brightly coloured plastic buckets to carry on their heads back home.

These shots were taken in various locations between Arusha and Kondoa in the brief moments we had outside the Land Rover. Many people want money if you take their picture and this is a hard one for me because once you give money you have to keep giving money. I know photographers who do pay for their shots and its not much money by western standards, but somehow to me you never really make the proper connection when money becomes the currency of contact. I have enough fun with the people who open up to me as people and the ones who want money I leave alone. It takes time to meet people and take a portrait. Most of the time I shoot with a 50mm lens - up close and engaged. A long lens puts too much distance between me an my subject; shooting from several meters away I would feel too separated.

The shade behind buildings is bright and even and the hot sun bounces up off the street creating soft shadows on the faces.

Here are a few shots then of the women and children I have met during my travels here. They are beautiful people living in their world as we live in ours with the same basic concerns; family, food and shelter.