Tag Archives: umbrella

Woman with sombrilla, Oaxaca, Mexico

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After a lengthy absence from posting photos — for reasons that are too common to number — I am endeavoring to return to publishing what I shoot. This image, made in the winter of 2025, is from one of my favorite streetcorners in Oaxaca, a busy intersection packed with bus riders and blessed by lated afternoon western sun.

It may appear that the woman beneath the umbrella is hiding from me. She is not. Woman there commonly shield themselves from the bright, southern sun to protect their skin. Their shelter creates a ready shape for me.

More of my images from Oaxaca.

My Oaxaca – The Woman and the Umbrella

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“Come in, she said, I’ll give ya shelter from the storm.” – Bob Dylan

The umbrellas float atop the crowd, bobbing like comic word bubbles above the women – always women – who snap them open and thrust them skyward as they step from the shade of street corners, churches and buses into the glare of the Mexican sun.

Beneath the umbrella, beyond shelter from the solar storm, the canopy creates a protective sphere. Inside, the woman navigates the eddies and swirls of the sidewalks, fends off unwanted solicitations, commercial and libidinous, and broadcasts, with a portentous downward tilt of the umbrella’s pointed tip, that she is about her business and is not to be messed with.