Beautiful Emine Posing, Trabzon, Turkey, 1965
(catalog number 501J-193-004)

IN 1965 I received a Fulbright scholarship to travel and photograph in Turkey. It was a dream come true. It would be the beginning of my life's photographic journey.

I remember the day well. I had traveled to Trabzon, in eastern Turkey. Every morning I would go out in the streets and photograph all day. In a small town near the Trabzon harbor, I saw this child and thought she was very beautiful. She took me to her house. We had tea with her mother, and I made the photograph in the back courtyard of her small house. She was extremely seductive for a child so young.

This is probably the first strong photograph I made. It was a turning point for me. I thought about this girl for decades and wondered what had become of her. I hoped that some day I could find her again.

This past spring, I went to Istanbul for the first time since my Fulbright. I had been invited by the World Press Photo. I brought the photograph with me with the hope of finding this girl. I showed her photograph to a reporter and told him that I wanted to find her. The picture was published in a newspaper.

I returned to New York, and a few days later got an e-mail from the newspaper saying that they had been contacted by people who saw the photograph of the child in the newspaper. They recognized the young girl by a scar. They gave the newspaper her phone number, and the newspaper contacted her. She immediately remembered being photographed. She was 10 years old at the time. She said: "Suddenly, a well-dressed woman approached me, and with some body language, she explained that she wanted me to pose for her." She also said that the dress she wore that day was new.

Her name is Emine Kalayli. She doesn't speak English, but one of her daughters who does sent me an e-mail. She told me about her mother's life. At the age of 14, Emine left her home to run off with her boyfriend and get married. Today she is 49, has two grown daughters, and lives with her husband in a town near Istanbul. He

works in the car-cleaning business and is a member of the Lions Club. I had spent so many years romanticizing about what I thought Emine's life would be like now. I pictured her living in a small idyllic village somewhere in eastern Turkey, with sheep and cows. I have a hard time imagining her in an urban environment. The last e-mail from Emine's daughter said that they are all waiting for me to come. I can't wait to meet them.