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Gilles Peress, Street, Azerbaijan
The fact that each person is looking in different directions makes this claustrophobic street, packed with people and vehicles, even more menacing. As viewers, we naturally follow the gazes of the people in picture as they criss-cross through the scene. The cloaked woman moving toward us in the center of the picture is the only person looking at us, with only one eye.
In order to make this picture, Peress had to be able to see it happening as the figures moved into these positions, get his camera up and on the right settings, and choose the precise split-second to snap the picture. In much of Peress’ work choosing the right picture really means choosing the right moment to take the picture.
I have always admired the photographs of Gilles Peress but a great joy in discovering this site was the assistance the viewer receives in the practice of looking. And looking not simply at the single photograph but its comparison with another, and also the context that binds the photograph to the photographer.
Both of these photographs feature women staring into the camera with only one eye. Of course they have two eyes, but Peress has captured exactly the moment when one eye is covered. It is a device he uses a lot. He seems to search for that moment when one eye is looking directly at him, and he is of course looking back through the camera’s viewfinder, also with one eye.
Gilles Peress, Demonstration in a Stadium, Tabriz
