Smiling Eyes, Vietnam, 2006

Added 1534704625 by Dave Rudin.

One of the reasons that I photograph in black & white, rather than color, is that sometimes color photos can give too much information. This is the case here. This young lady, photographed in northern Vietnam in 2006, belongs to the Flower Hmong ethnic minority group (or "hill tribe," as some say). The women in this group wear extremely colorful outfits, and this girl is no exception. To see this in color you would be dazzled by it all, but what you would likely miss seeing are things like texture, patterns - and yes, her face.

Someone once said that "when you photograph people in color, you are photographing their clothing, but when you photograph them in black & white, you are photographing their souls." Some may debate that, of course, but in this case, the monochrome image allows one to concentrate on the young lady's face - and even though half of her face is obscured, one can still see from her eyes and her expression that she is smiling. :-)