In 2017, I was on a field trip to Djerba, Tunisia, with my university. We co-organized the light-art festival SEE DJERBA, and during our free days, we visited some of the island’s tourist spots.

On one of our tours with our group of German and Tunisian students, I managed to take this picture.

It was a particularly hot day, and I liked the tones and shapes of the mosque’s domes, and the way he roots himself to the stone structure with his fist while shading his face and waving air toward it.

I am relatively shy about photographing people and showing their faces. The fact that his face was half hidden behind his hat made it so much more intriguing for me to press the shutter. Although I no longer remember his name, I do recall that I liked him. He was kind and interested and suffering from the heat, as were all of us.

Back then, I was more interested in writing than photography. Taking pictures felt complementary to storytelling. I was passionate about it, and I tried to make my pictures worth looking at, but gear and settings didn’t matter much to me. I think I used an old Sony Alpha APSC that my brother had passed on to me and that had already seen better days.

When I look at some of my older stuff now, I am reminded that being open-minded is much more precious than gear, pixels, and bubbly bokeh. Sadly, I have lost most of the pictures I took in 2017 and 2018, along with the notes that accompanied them. But a few survivors, by chance, are saved in different places. This is one of the survivors.

What are the TWO most impactful features that make your image a good photograph? Don’t be shy!

I like the half-hidden face behind the hat. It creates a little mystery, although everyone can tell he isn’t actually hiding. The half-hidden face and the way he waves his hat tell of the heat. I also like the shape and tonality of the domes, which suggest the desert mosque, even though it isn’t actually visible. So both the person and the building are only partly shown but still completely readable.

If you could make this photo again, what would be the ONE thing you would like to do better or differently?

With more practice and knowledge of light and gear, I would be curious to see if I could capture the same image or make it even more intriguing. I have a background in creative writing (at least in German), and I know that I cannot come up with the same sentence a second time. Everything just works in that moment of inspiration. Another time would mean a different piece of work. I feel the same about photography.

Henry Cyrenius shared this photograph with the FRAMES Facebook Group.

Photographer

Henry Cyrenius, Mühlhausen in Thüringen, Germany