Pic(k) of the week 16: I am from Dera Ismail Khan

While I was over to photograph at the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi end of last month, I noticed a few men sitting near the front entrance. As one of them, was wearing an interesting hat and had a great facial expression, I couldn't resist to ask whether I could make a few images of them. 

As I started talking to them, I asked where they were from and was confident they would tell me, "Afghanistan"... but I was wrong. Very proudly one of them told me in broken English, "I am from Dera Ismail Khan". Suspecting it was in Pakistan, I didn't exactly know where it was. Out came my iPhone and I requested them to point it out on Google Maps. Often abbreviated as D.I. Khan, this city on the West bank of the Indus river, lies about 200 miles (320km) west of Lahore.

The conversation turned out to be a great ice-breaker and gave me the opportunity to make a few compelling images. 

I'm from Dera Ismail Khan

Image details:
Fujifilm X-T1 with the 50-140 f2.8 lens
ISO 640, 84mm (126mm full frame equivalent), f5.6, 1/400s
RAW development in Lightroom 5.7 
Nik SilverEfex 2 for Black and White conversion

A diptych of this image together with a second one of one of the other men, can be found here.

Remember what Henri Cartier-Bresson once said: "The photograph is to put on the same line of sight the head, the eye and the heart".

BJORN

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