This week, a few odds and ends from my trip down the Mississippi
Delta. Which, by the way, isn’t really a delta at all, that’s just what
they call it: The Mississippi Delta; It starts in Memphis and ends in
Vicksburg. Geologically speaking it’s really an alluvian plain. The
real, actual delta of the Mississippi River, is called The Mississippi
River Delta. Go figger.

BOBO, MISSISSIPPI

Second last day of the trip we rolled into overcast Bobo, Mississippi
(pop 1,200). There, at the end of a street, picked cotton fields and
just plain country beyond, 2 girls were shooting hoops.

I pull over, walk up to them, say: “You know what I want to do?
I want to take a picture of you two. I want to stand way back
there and just take a picture of you playing. Is that okay with
you?”

They stared as though they’d never seen or heard a man like me
(perhaps they hadn’t) and said: “Sure”‘

I go on: “But, because you’re young I have to speak with your mom
or dad or whoever’s looking after you”.

At which point their uncle comes out of his house (trailer). I go up,
explain and he says: Yeah, sure”.

I love the lack of paranoia, the fact that folks in Mississippi take a
lot of things at face value.

Anyway, I take the shot:

Bobo, Mississippi

Afterwards I shoot a portrait of the 2 gals; Suge (pronounced like it’s short
for sugar) and Nukie.

Suge and Nukie, Bobo, Ms.

But that’s not my Bobo story. This is my Bobo story:

A short time later this little bull-like kid comes over to me, looks up and,
bossy, drawls: “Take my picture”. It sounds like: “Take ma pitchah”.

I say to him: “Is that any way to ask someone for something?”

I can see his brain working, he’s trying to figure out how to ask nicely.
This is what he comes up with: “May you take ma pitchah?”

Of course I will. I ask his name, he says a word I don’t understand. I ask him
again. Same thing. So I look over to his dad, who’s standing there. He just
shrugs and says: “We can’t pronounce his name. We call him Boo-man”.

Boo-man, Bobo, Ms

THE FINAL EDIT

Just press the arrow, bottom left. (If you’re a regular drool reader
you’ll have seen a few of these shots last week. Oh well.)

ACCENT

Finally, just to give you an idea of the openness, grace and accent
of the folks in the Mississippi Delta, here’s a short video. The dude
is Jesse Fox, who we met in Leland and took to lunch.

Some of Jesse’s words you may not understand: “dialysis”, “wrasslin’/tusslin’”
and “violence”.

TECH NOTES

Because I’m feeling geeky this morning:

All these photos were shot using my Mamiya 6, medium format, range-
finder camera. I use Kodak Portra 160 VC film and scan the negatives
with a Microtek Artixscan M1 scanner. The scanner is a bit finicky with
the Mac OS (10.5.6), but the way it renders tones and colors makes it
all worth it.

The Mamiya is a great walking around camera because it’s real light and
portable. The optical viewfinder takes a bit of getting used to but the lens
is amazingly sharp. Besides, using a different tool every so often is, if you
ask me, a good thing.

I like film for the way it renders things and for the fact that you don’t get to
see what you’ve just shot…….it forces you to just shoot, if you know what I
mean.