Karate, Hong Kong

Excerpt from Light Gesture and Color:

You have certain prejdices whether or not you want them. At one point, I hated to take pictures of people that were "posing" for me.

I was in Hong Kong. I saw this guy and he spotted me about the same time.

He went into this stance seen here. It's a Goju-ryu karate move. It's called "cat-stance." All the weight is on the back foot so the front foot is light, ready to kick. This guy was perfect in every way. Not a finger our of place. I've done karate. About the time I took this I was a second-degree black belt. Fifty years later I'm a no-degree fat belt.

This was what was going through my mind in a nanosecond.

"He's posing for me and I hate photographing people who are posing for me, but he's obviously really good and he's offering me something, and if I dont take it he very well get offended and kick the shit out of me."

I finished my stream-of-consciousness moment and took the picture.

The whole episode was over in in a moment, but this guy and that picture really made me aware of gesture. Now I even take pictures of people who are posing for other people.