Streetshooting by hapinstance: Philippines, April 2003

Quite by accident, when we arrived for the furniture shoot (an Aussie I’d met in Manila owned some factories in Laguna & had asked me to photograph some stock) I stopped by a local sari sari store for a cold soda and was totally captivated by the little girl on the sidewalk (I’ve nicknamed her ‘Laguna Little Girl’) who acted like a little supermodel waiting for me to shoot her portfolio.

I’d never shot informal portraiture of children before (never really shot anything in Philippines; it was my very first trip there) and I really didn’t look at the files from that day until I returned to the US…it was then that I realized how beautiful the kids were that day, and that I’d enjoyed the street-shooting there - because of how they reacted to me & welcomed me to their Barangay.

Laguna Little Girl (I don’t know her real name and have never seen her since that day) inspired me to delve more deeply into street shooting, and hence is directly responsible for the very type of photography I’m doing to this day.

Someday I hope to see her & her Family again…and thank them for opening my eyes to their world.

There are more images of her in my pbase gallery: http://www.pbase.com/pauljames/the_littleist_supermodel

PJAMES