Ming Smith, Onlookers, Isle de Gorée, Senegal, c. 1972

Narrator: Ming Smith was in Senegal when she took this photograph of a group of boys.

Ming Smith: The onlookers are not looking into the camera, they’re looking at the action. So it’s more pure. And it’s just the way they move. It’s beautiful. It’s like sculpture. And they didn’t even know they were being photographed—that was their natural pose even if I wasn't there. 

With art it’s cerebral, but there has to be a time to let go. In any craft, you learn the basics. And then you just go. An opera singer or jazz musician run scales all day and when it comes to performing they just sing or play. So photography was like that, you learn about lighting. You have the rudiments of the craft within you and then you just you just let it flow.