My Savior

This sweet Turkish seamstress saved my old crippled bag from the grave. I needed to find someone to fix my book bag which is on the bottom right hand side of the picture and Bruce suggested this seamstress who works in her own shop near Rathaus Steglitz. We talked for a long time and surprisingly all in German. She has been working in this same shop for about twenty years and has a very loyal clientele. During our conversation at least two other people came in to have something fixed and she had everything ready by the end of the afternoon.
This Thursday my approach was a bit different than the other days because by now I've already taken some pictures and printed them out. I talked to her for awhile before even bringing out my camera. We talked about her daughters, her shop and her life here in Berlin. After I felt that she was comfortable with me I showed her the pictures that I've taken and explained my project. At first she was still a little hesitant but I told her she would be the most beautiful woman on my blog, she laughed and then warmed up to the idea of being photographed and had fun. During our photo shoot I repeatedly said "sehr schoen, sehr sehr schoen" which means really beautiful and pretty. I took a lot of pictures of her but this one was my favorite and one of the last ones that I took. At first I got a lot of scared pictures but this one really shows the sweet motherly person that she is. I tried to frame the picture with her surrounding and capture the feel of the shop without having too many distractions. I placed the sewing machine on the left, her work table flowing across the bottom and just enough of her message board on the right. I really like the touches of color that the thread board adds to the picture and the yellow tape measurer around her neck is part of her uniform.
At 16.00 I went back to pick up my bag and was so excited that it was fixed and good for another nine years :) I took over 300 pictures during the day and when I went back to see her she asked about them and I was able to show her not only her pictures but also my favorite ones from the day. When I left I thanked her very much for all of her help and she wished me good luck on my project.