Mississippi & The Taylor-Wessing Prize.

So last day for the entries into this prestigious award and we entered six prints .Over 60,000 entries from all over the world last year of which only 60 photographers were chosen  ( and I was fortunate enough to be one of them ) and this year I think there will be even more. it’s a tough contest for sure but one of the best I feel for serious work.

Anyhow I rented a car from NYC six months ago and drove down to the Delta and here are three pictures from that weeks personal trip I selected for the this years Wessing awards I thought I would share.  The Black & White is of a girl called ‘Storm’, she was picking Pecans in a near-by field and came into town for a soda , I was already set up on a street corner to shoot something else when she approached me and asked me to take her picture!. ‘Cindy at the crossroads’ is a local girl who works at a old Cotten Gin, she turned up in her work clothes as agreed and despite no experience in front of a camera turned out to be just great. Finally, The homeless man – Robert White , was living in a railroad shed around the back of this disused building in downtown Jackson Mississippi, again I was set up to shoot the urban landscape but he agreed for me make him the focus of the picture if I bought him a soda !. I would have bought him two but after the few minutes he gave me he just wandered off back to his ‘ home’ saying ” don’t worry about the soda it was my pleasure ” ! .. amazing.

Maria in her Kitchen

This is a neighbour of my mother-in-law , Maria,  I like Maria. She has a quiet air of affectionate wisdom and affability about her despite limited circumstances and personal tragedies that are, unfortunately, unique to poorer struggling countries like Romania. This was one of many images I made during the time I lived in Eastern Romania and forms part of a ongoing project as well as fascination I have for this fabulous country and it’s wonderful resourceful people – like Maria.http://www.darranrees.com/portfolios/projects#romania

F.O.G & G.M.C in LA.

sometimes Fog is good ! As during this shoot in a cement works near Los Angeles

for GMC trucks.

Mexico, Coffee Growers

New little story now up on the site  I made for Cafe-Direct/Fair Trade of the indigenous coffee growers who form some of the coffee co-operatives in southern Mexico . During the week or so I spent with these charming and friendly people in the Chiapas region, where we followed them to their factories, co-op meetings, their plantations , villages and homes. A disarmingly hospitable people with a huge generosity of spirit despite the conditions in which they live and work bringing us the coffee we usually only get to see for the first time when it’s on the supermarket shelf at home !

http://www.darranrees.com/portfolios/projects#mexique