This young boy in Yemen framed between his uncle and his father. Really, I thought it was a very moving situation. I thought the boy had this really heartfelt expression. I love photographing children. I often empathize with them because they have to live in a world of adults, when in fact they just want to play and have fun.
You can see in the photograph that the two men, the father and the uncle, are wearing these ceremonial daggers. Every adult male in Yemen wears this knife on his waist as a belt, it’s a tradition and you see all over Yemen. I had attended a wedding that day. The father and the uncle were leaving with this boy to go home. The whole day had been spent with dancing, singing, music, food and people chatting, but this young boy, I could really sense was a bit bored. He probably didn’t want to be there, he wanted to be playing with his friends. So I cropped out the two adults and I wanted to zero in just on this little boy. He had this kind of sad expression. You could see that he just couldn’t wait to get home. Perhaps, he was a bit unhappy with having to spend the entire day with these adults.
I love this kind of light for portraiture, flat, soft, muted. I always want to be able to see the eyes. I like the photograph in a dim rather dark situation so that people's eyes fully open. You can really look in and get to know them, get to see their eyes and see their expression in a very kind of relaxed, natural way.