Dona Antônia, Grande Sertão Veredas National Park, Brazil Possibly 1999 - 2001

Fazal Sheikh made this image, Dona Antônia, in the Grande Sertão Veredas National Park in Brazil, using photography. It’s a portrait, really, and as such, invites us into relationship with the subject. I’m curious about the play of light here. The evenness of it makes me think of a painter carefully mixing tones on a grey day in preparation for the task ahead. Like, how do you capture the dignity and presence of this woman? How do you honour the place where she is, or where she has come to be? How do you describe what it means to live there? What does she think about? The flowers she holds offer a clue. The gesture of her hand, which is worn and tender. It tells us something about holding, tending, caring. In that gesture I see a wider conversation with other photographers like August Sander or Judith Joy Ross, each trying to build a picture of the world, one person at a time.