notforthefainthearted Misery

The stuff wars are made of. I imagine it takes bit of guts to actually raise your camera and take a image like this. Thanks for sharing

/Svend Erik

Hi Svend Erik

Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts & emotions, caused by this photo.

The photo was taken during a leisurely stroll through a European capital's ancient centre in a country belonging to the European Union.

Suddenly this beggar came into my view.

Immediately I found the scene bizarre: a motionless person, on his knees with a paper cup as begging receptacle in a stretched-out hand, amidst wealthy tourists enjoying their walkabouts through town.

Clearly, the person wasn't one of those omnipresent street artists who stand motionless, either in special attire or painted in metallic colours, to earn a few bucks

Behaving like a tourist which, of course, I was at that moment, I quickly put my camera against my eye, simulated a few shots left, right & centre & thus in one real shot captured the man, without causing attention from him or any bystanders.

My mental block, to take a picture of someone less fortunate by myself, was pushed to the back of my mind by having to act very quickly to shoot the scene: beggar, happy tourists, cobblestone street, sunny summer time.

An advantage was that the beggar didn't look straight into my eyes. He seemed mentally absent, which helped to suppress my blocking emotions.

From what you can read about the homeless & beggars on the streets of wealthy cities, it can be deducted that many, if not most, of them are sick of body and mind. The coins people spend on them often are quickly used for buying drugs, alcoholic drinks, and not for getting healthy food.

I didn't contribute a coin to this beggar, but quickly walked away.

I once photographed a beggar (that photo is in my Berlin folder), gave him some paper money after I had taken the shot with a tele zoom (so he hadn't noticed me). When he had counted his luck, he immediately disappeared into the nearest bar...

You can now ask, why do you share this image on PN? My answer is that the image shows an omnipresent aspect of street life in cities. By showing it to others, you cannot improve the world as we know it, but it might give a wee bit of food for thought about the human predicament.

This image is not a work of art, but the scene it presents struck my eye as special and dramatic. That's also why I changed the colours into grey-scale.

I hope I've given you some insight in the workings of my photographer's mind.

It hasn't been a matter of 'guts' to shoot this scene - it sort of just happened.

Cheers

Sam

Bold and brave - I like you actually think about weather you should publish it or not. Thanks for sharing.