I am quite reticent of photographing local people on our travels. I don’t know why, but my shyness means that while many others have stacks of pictures of women and children in colourful costumes and toothless men smiling broadly for the camera, my albums only have a small number of these shots. Occasionally though, we do get the opportunity to capture a natural moment. This is one of those that I want to share.
Bukhara is a great place to explore. Once a hub of Silk Route trade, where the rulers spent their infinite riches on palaces and beautiful mosques, now Bukhara is a sleepy backwater. The city still boasts many splendid buildings, adorned with majolica tiles and restored in the years of Russian rule to something like their former glory. While there are visitors in the city, it manages to maintain a laid-back feel, and there is little rushing around seen from anyone within the city walls.
Bukhara is a maze of narrow streets, dead end alleys and forlorn doorways. It is a city meant to be explored on foot, and we got happily lost in the maze of streets several times while we stayed here. It was on one of these adventures that we were accosted by a group of children. There must have been around eight boys and girls, and when they saw my little cam era, they wanted to pose for a picture (this is one of the few remaining parts of the world where none of them thought to ask us for money for the privilege of getting a picture – give them time, they’ll probably learn!)
Not content with my picture, the oldest boy tugged at my sleeve and asked me for the camera. Herein lies the beauty of always carrying a cheap and cheerful device. I was more than happy to hand it over and let him snap away at his friends, and then give it back when he was done (these were the best of a pretty bad selection!) They contrived to fight and jostle to be in these pictures, showing far more excitement than when I had tried to get them lined up in an orderly fashion.
As we didn’t have a common language and there seemed no interest in asking us for a copy of the pictures, we just showed them the results of the young photographer’s work, waved and walked on. It gave them a bit of amusement, and was a funny if brief interaction with Bukhara’s younger residents for us. As for the camera, a good clean was required to get the fingerprints off the lens, but it was soon back to its best and none the worse for wear.
(Aug 2008)
Luv it!!!