Stone Town Morning

The reason I decided to go to Stone Town was to photograph.  From everything I could read (and see online), it was going to be an easy place to photograph.  Sure, I had gotten some decent pictures that first day there, but I hadn’t really entered into that photographing frame of mind where it’s you, the camera and whatever you see through the viewfinder.  Whether it was the newness of the place or the annoying shopkeepers, it just hadn’t happened.  

Fortunately I had decided in advance that I was going to wake up early on Sunday and walk around with a single camera and a single lens and see what Stone Town was like before it fully came to life.  I’m glad I did.  For an hour and a half before breakfast, I did nothing more than wander through the alleys to see what I could discover.

For lack of a better organizational structure, the following photos are presented in the order I shot them.

Stone Town is a city of textures and colors and sounds (and in a few places, smells, though not like Liberia).  I generally still have a hard time including people in my photographs, and usually revert to finding interesting compositions in empty spaces.  As I framed things in the viewfinder to take a shot from this position, I heard a lock open, then another, and I decided to wait with my camera up to my eye to photograph what might appear.  The door opened and this guy stepped out, looked my way, then the other way, then stepped back inside.  It’s frustrating how digital cameras can occasionally not fire when you press the shutter (even good ones), but I came out with three pictures, tow of them with the gentleman, and one a keeper.

As I walked further down the same alley, I came across a lady who was stopping to pick up empty buckets at different houses.  I suspect that she would make something for each family and then drop it off in the buckets, though I can’t say for sure.

After wandering around a bit more, I came across an interesting intersection that had a bunch of chalkboards with the whole group rounds of the European Cup laid out and the scores from the first two days of the competition filled in (notably the Denmark upset over Holland from the night before).  I took a shot of the wall (what soccer fan wouldn’t?) and started walking away.  A guy on a bike quickly passed by me, then I heard him suddenly stop.  I turned around to see him checking out the score from the previous night’s matches and took the following shot.

As many of you know, I’ve always been drawn to photographing abstractions in the environment.  There are so many textures and colors in Stone Town, it was hard to not continuously point the camera at flaking, crumbling walls, door details, or weathering patterns.  As it was, I only took one real abstraction and, just because I can’t help myself, here it is.

I think I could spend days upon days doing these, which is why I didn’t I guess - I didn’t have enough time.  Next time, I’ll have a tripod and make sure I have time to do it right.

As the hour passed, more and more kids started appearing.  As it was Sunday, it was a normal day for the Muslim children and I quickly realized kids were passing me by to go to school.  I wound up taking several shots of kids going to school.

As I had been photographing a woman sweeping up this intersection, these girls appeared from the right and turned down the alley away from me.  Sometimes people just don’t do what you want them to!

This next shot I was originally composing because of the interesting forms with the steps and low walls.  As I made one photograph I heard the whir of mountain bike tires and saw this boy coming in the distance. So I waited a few seconds and . . . .

I eventually found the school that the boys were going to.  It was still early because a bunch of the kids were outside and some of them were just riding their bikes around.  So I walked through the alleys around the school, and kids would pass by me in both directions and would sometimes say hello to each other as they passed.

I’ve mentioned that Stone Town (as are all cities) is a place of sounds.  They’re unique from most other cities I’ve been to because there are a lot of echoes and you often hear things long before you see them.  Sometimes it’s only a matter of seconds before you hear an engine and a scooter comes speeding your way.

Not all of my photos had people in them.  There were times when I waited, and waited, and waited and no one appeared.  At some point you decide whether to wait longer, or to move on and find another image.  Still, I like this picture because it shows the diversity of spaces and places for people to engage in a place like Stone Town.  And yes, this is the same alley that the girls walked down.

And other times I found a spot and waited and got something worth while.  Here, a young man is talking to his mother who is taking her time as she walks him to school.

I am really glad that I decided to head out early and to find out what Stone Town can be like before it dresses up for the tourist trade.