Description

Our keepers would not have wanted us to record the scene,  or even to see it. It seemed innocent enough to Western eyes…

We had been invited, but our unabashed curiosity was not entirely welcome. “Ah, they warned me about you, how you are!” We saw a family working their field, several of them hitched to the family plow — a harness around one shoulder and everyone leaning into it, the whole field, a furrow at a time, a few feet at a time. Someone noticed us looking, and urged us to know, “They could have a tractor if they wanted one!”

We made sure we were unobserved in this moment. We shot from the hip and moved along. The image has an impressionistic soft focus. Details have been altered to protect the sensibilities of the authorities.