Sunday's Photo Tech: Looking back at 1982 Amish Country

Amish Lad – Photo & Text by Lance A. Lewin 2015

I stare at the image below often – the 16x24 print sits propped up against a wall left to my desk – the rosy cheek lad forever looking back.  He speaks to me – eyes so riveting as to seemingly pierce me – deliberately painful – as punishment for infiltrating his space and snapping this image.  

Amish Lad Photo by L. Lewin 1982

You see the young boy is fishing with his brother’s are in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania: Amish country.

Lancaster Pa - L. Lewin 1982

For the most part the countryside is flat and dotted with farms with old-order Amish men plowing fields – standing or sitting behind horse-drawn blows turning up the earth in preparation for spring seeding.  If I remember correctly, we turn right onto a smaller – narrower – paved road when we see six young boys dressed in traditional old-order long coats and straw hats scamper across the road in front of us.  We drive slowly towards the spot they disappeared.  

Now, I was well aware the Amish populations, especially the old-order Amish families, do not respond well to outsiders photographing them.  However, while Anne waited behind the drivers seat I followed three of the boys. The image was so inviting: three straw hats atop of identical long broadcloth coats, each boy carrying a simple fishing pole.  I snapped off two or three shots (Minolta XD-11 affixed with 100mm lens and loaded with K64 Slide film.). They kept moving about, but I was confident it was not from being pursued, but rather finding the right spot to settle down and cast their lines.  However, feeling their uneasiness I kept my distance.  The 100mm lens was perfect in this situation. 

Lancaster Pa - L. Lewin 1982

As close as I was going to get – I stopped and arranged a composition through the viewfinder – the lad turned and looked through my lens – It was the shot I was hoping for – I pulled the trigger.  In an instant I pulled my eye from the viewfinder and gave the young boy a smile.  I hear yelling behind me – father was calling the boys – I quickly pulled myself up the embankment  - the father was toting a rifle and yelling at me to leave – sliding into the passenger side of our car – Anne made a quick u-turn and we were gone.

However, if my plan were to visit the region again to complete a photo-essay – perhaps following one family for several days or weeks – I would work hard to introduce my intentions, gain their trust and hopefully be rewarded to follow and photograph their lives.

And so, the endless one-way exchange between the Amish boy and myself continues: does the Amish lad – now a grown man likely in his 40’s – remember me?  If we met would he nod and approve of the photograph, or would I be lectured, or worse, quietly admonished through his stare. 

“Amish Lad” Captured in the Amish landscape of south-central Pennsylvania – L. Lewin 1982