Aftermath of a carjacking gone wrong with tens of schoolchildren (& me) as witnesses seconds after the exchange of Glock and Kalashnikov gunfire is complete. The camera is lying if there's an implication of callousness in the framing. We're all just waiting to see what's next, here and elsewhere in the New South Africa of the mid 90s

Seems a clear-cut case of indigenous hostility to recent immigrants. In reality the older man simply lost his bike balance and veered into the adjacent West Africans who gently corrected his balance and then he was on his way down the Arno river with a cheerful Grazie Mille and a Piacere in response

@Johannesburg 1992

2004 Tokyo Jamaican Festival @Yoyogi Park Japan

This is not nearly as other-worldly as I could make it out - everyone was communicating effortlessly in both Japanese and English. The beans were more popular than the fish. It seems that cultures only clash if both parties really want it to...

2005 South Beach @ Miami

This could be sliced two ways: #1 [Old Skool] construction worker types gawping at a young lady, or #2 Something even more insidious involving the long and lingering history of race in the South. I actually chanced on the framing so quickly that I don't recall whether the real scenario was #1 #2 or something entirely different. But don't make assumptions based on a single data point, ever.

2014 Damascus Gate@Jerusalem

The Orthodox iPod Touch combined with adjacent Nigerian Christian pilgrims can make it look otherworldy. In reality it was perfectly ordinary with no one paying any particular attention to anyone else (We all have our uniforms). Times have changed of course.

What do you think this woman's role on this ongoing construction site was? Entry level 'Flagger'? (safety sign holder). Try Project Superintendent earning just under $100,000. I'd been watching the site for a while and then both Flaggers went on lunch break at the same time and she stepped in. Spoke unaccented Spanish (& English) to boot.

2022 Catania Fish Market @Sicily

2019 Tribeca @NYC

We think we know what's been going on in the south of Italy for some time now. Migrant boats carrying asylum seekers, the rise of the far right etc. As I approached this animated conversation fearing their imminent conflict, my limited Italian made me break into a small smile. Right here next to Catania's Duomo, these two were engaged in some good-natured buyer-seller street theater around the quality of some freshly landed octopus. She bought and they fist bumped their goodbyes (this was Covid times after all)

2023 Car Boot Sale @Liverpool England

We see the contrast, the seemingly obvious divide, and make certain assumptions based on a snapshot of life and a lifetime of observations. Fast forward 10 minutes when the little girl was showing her new market haul of blonde Barbies to the old men behind her. Everyone then went inside to watch the Liverpool v Everton derby