love me a locaburg

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Originally uploaded by locaburg.

I’m regularly astonished by the photography of locaburg, a photographer on Flickr who ranges around, between and beyond Mexico City and Detroit.

It’s his portraits that do it to me. Raw and real, they generally share one thing in common: His subjects give, without giving it all away.

They allow the camera’s gaze, and they give it back with interest.

The only time I’ve ever caught a taste of something like the dust that falls in the wake of this guy’s footsteps as he passes by with his Canon was the time I asked a woman dying indigo in El Salvador if I could take her photo. She generously said yes, and the shot she gave me was startling -- but yeah, right, I know -- not even close to a Locaburg.

There’s such strong regard in locaburg’s photographs for his subjects. They don’t give away everything, but that they give what they do give -- and that locaburg handles it with the respect he does -- that, in itself, is everything.

Here’s Locaburg’s photostream »

[update] Locaburg's pics will be published next year as The Detroit Book by the Contemporary Art Museum in Detroit »