People Gallery

People moments frozen in time by art photographer Scott Takeda.

  • I took this photo of this young monk named Tall at the Bakong Temple – one of the oldest temples in the Angkor Wat complex. At the time, he was 21, and he told me he needed to be a monk until he was 27. His religious studies were how he got his education. The oldest of four kids, he longed to be a teacher, but was afraid he didn’t know enough.To earn cash, he often worked for donations as a tour guide for English-speaking visitors like myself. And when he had open time, he’d sit closely to a one-room school built beside the temple to listen into the lessons – hoping one day he’d be the teacher.
  • My friends and I found these kids diving 25 meters off of a bridge into the canal below them. They were part of the sights and savory smells of the Talin Chan Floating Market, a maze of open-air canal barges filled with flowers, fresh produce, and spicy Thai cooked dishes. This was a hidden little gem, free of the crowds and tourist-trappings. We hopped from boat-to-boat and saw dozens of food vendors docking their small cooking boats to large barges. They prepared meals for local folks sitting on the barge floor at ankle-high tables. For entertainment, people sang Karaoke in the nearby park and local musicians performed traditional Thai music. Everyone cheered loudly as these fearless kids enjoyed their time in the spotlight.
  • Bride-to-be Mei had a panicked look as she changed clothes in front of thongs of tourists. Her friends tried to hide her as she went through countless traditional Cambodian gowns and wedding dresses for wedding photos. Meanwhile, her future husband Heng and his groomsmen waited amidst the nearby ruins of Bayan Temple in Angkor Wat. They wore white tuxedoes, smoked cigarettes and told jokes. Traditional Cambodian weddings are two-day events: the first is for photographs and a private ceremony with family; the second is an extravagant feast for the village. More than 850 people attended Mei and Heng’s 2-hour reception, which included a nine-course meal, karaoke, an open bar and gifts for everyone attending.
  • In Hungary, I discovered that normally private displays of affection are very much for public viewing in Budapest. Everywhere I saw lovers kissing – in the park, on street corners, even in subway advertisements for K&H Bank. These kissing people gave this old-world city a puppy-love kind of atmosphere – almost as if this younger generation (raised without the Iron Curtain) was staging its own cultural revolution against the restrictions of the past. I caught this public display of affection one summer afternoon on a subway ride from Szentendre to Budapest. The young husband had joined his pregnant wife for a trip into the city.
  • Let me start by saying that I’m not a wedding photographer. The pressure is just too stressful for me. I’d rather be assigned to cover the President or Pope, than to face the burden of missing the bouquet toss. However I'm always fascinated to snap a photo if it has a story. This shot is of Darci and Doug – two cops who eloped to New York City and got married by the NYPD Chaplain in Central Park. I took this image shortly after their vows, enjoying an early Spring stroll along the eastern edge of the park. Instead of the bouquet shot, they took theirs arresting each other with handcuffs. Despite the overcast skies, the temperature was warm, and the twisty cherry tree branches provided a wonderful canopy to frame their time together.
  • Thailand is an intoxicating mix of the unexpected. This photo is a fiery representation of that. Shown is the traditional ritual of baton twirling. (Dainty female twirlers need not apply.) At night, muscular Thai men light fire to heavy batons and swirl them around their heads, much to the delight of crowds drawn by the dazzling flames and the aromatic concoction of sweat and kerosene. I probably took 200 images of fire shows across Thailand (some involving pre-pubescent men proving their manhood). However on the 201st shot, I finally captured the image I wanted. Speaking of unexpected, notice that I got my shot during a Christmas celebration with an American-style, rock-n-roll band in the background.
  • The boys you see are standing on the ledge of a private residential pool that sits 15 feet above the crashing waves of Bondi Beach. Bondi is world famous for its huge powerful waves that propel surfers toward its majestic sandy beaches, and when these ten foot waves hit a barrier, (such as this pool wall) the explosive spray can be felt yards away. I discovered these boys one afternoon when the “surf was up.” Apparently they had jumped over the owner’s fence so they could stand along the wall just as the waves hit - the force sweeping them into the pool in front of them. Shortly after I snapped this image, the police arrived and chased them away. It was too bad because I was just about to join them!
  • I took this Mardi Gras photo during the Krewe du Vieux (CROO-duh-VOO) parade – traditionally the first parade of the Mardi Gras season. For the many residents of New Orleans, Krewe du Vieux is Mardi Gras – still adhering to the 100-year old traditions of Carnival – mule or hand drawn floats winding through neighborhoods showing off satirical themes, jazz musicians, and costumed revelers parading in the streets. During the parade, so many New Orleans residents (total strangers) welcomed us into their homes, fed us, and hugged us warmly. At the end of the night, we felt like we had made lifelong friends. So I cried when I learned that those neighborhoods were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. I now wonder if this woman (or all the people who welcomed us openly) still call New Orleans home.
  • After five long-days of backbreaking work, our team of Habitat for Humanity volunteers took a needed break from building a home in the central-west part of Nepal. It was (after all) Thanksgiving, and we wanted to share our uniquely American tradition with our gracious hosts. Before preparing our feast with all the fixin’s, we toured the mustard and rice farms that dotted the hills around us. That when we came across this girl – standing with her mother – preparing the rice they had just harvested from the field. After a few seconds, her mother called her to go inside their small dirt home to begin preparing lunch of lentil beans and rice. This traditional meal – one that the Nepali people eat three times a day, every day – would be her Thanksgiving meal.
  • For most off the week, colonial Pisac is a quiet, rural, Andean village just north of Peru's Urubamba River. It comes alive on Sunday and Tuesday when its famous market opens. Held in de Plaza Constitucion, this colorful spectacle attracts area artisans and farmers who sell their produce and handicrafts. Women primarily run the market, leaving the men to tend the fields in the countless farms that checker the steep mountains surrounding Pisac. The market opens around 8am and runs through early afternoon. The young woman in the photo is dressed in traditional daily clothing. When I found her, she was waiting for the market to open. She had brought corn to trade for other goods.
  • Like many young photographers in the pre-digital age, I toyed around with various darkroom techniques for getting high-impact photos. Back then, there was no Internet, so most darkroom “secret recipes” were truly secret. The only way I could get a recipe was create my own, often through fumbling trial and error. I had a lot of failures. This photograph is one of my successes…sort of. It’s of a girl I had a crush on in college. Unfortunately she was my buddy’s girlfriend. I have no idea why she agreed to be my model; but I wanted to try out a new film stock, and she said she’d do it. I probably shot four rolls over that afternoon, trying out various exposures. This is the one image that got the high-impact look I wanted. It also captures an expression on her face that is evocative yet distant. Which is appropriate because while I had uncovered a “secret recipe” I desired; the object of my true affection remained out of reach.

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