Sounds of Shutter

This photograph is one of my favorites so far.

I hope I succeeded to tell the story about this boy.  Did I?

Some photographs demand spending some time with them and truly seeing what is going on there. This is one of those photos. Every part of the photo tells the story about this boy. Where does he live? How does he live?

Can you just for a second leave your cozy  room and  imagine to live in that conditions?  When did you change carpets in your house? Do your feet feel comfortable when stepping onto it? What is the color of your walls? How does your bed look like?

How does your computer look like? How much RAM does it have? I assume it works.

Do you feel attacked by my questions? Offended somehow? Don’t be, it’s your life. I do want to ask you those questions though. I do want this photograph have some impact on you. I don’t want to be overlooked  and analyzed just for composition, my post processing and else. I want you to see it, to truly see this boy and his home.

There are people there not fortunate enough to have material things and necessities for living.

Can you say more about the boy ? His expression tells you also in what condition is his state of mind… there is a little boy in inside that body…
I met him in his school and then we went to his house. I supposed to document in what condition his family lives. He was so excited about my camera, the car and the fact that his school director was with him. He was smiling and happy for that 15 minutes we spent in his house. I just couldn’t believe how far he lives from school and people.

It wasn’t so easy to take this photograph. I didn’t have enough time. He didn’t have enough of patience.

I struggle with available light and focusing. I stood in their hallway in a complete darkness with no much available light and the camera which was in my hands just for a few minutes. I had to borrow a camera from a friend, because mine is not capable to take decent shots indoors. My friend’s camera is Canon 600d with 17-55 2.8 lens. That was the first time I used a Canon. This was maybe the tenth capture with that camera. I left it in Aperture priority mode and it calculated shutter speed of 1/10 of a second. Thanks God I was still and I didn’t get heavy motion blur.

Other thing is how I handled my emotions being with him in his house. It wasn’t that simple to be just a photographer and think about including elements that will tell my viewer about where I was. I needed to think where is the light, where I will stand, how to incorporate what I saw and feel into one rectangle.

I struggled with the name I want to assign to this photograph and someone called it “Barren Simplicity”… and it really is..

I was deeply emotionally shaken that day. I think everyone would be. There are simply no words for explaining what I felt and what I still feel when looking at this photograph. If you want you can read and see  a bit more here 

I posted this photo on a forum and got this response:

“It’s a powerful image for me that evokes some emotion. Good job on that. I personally think the broom adds to the atmosphere and helps tell a part of the story. I don’t just see it as a broom… I see it as a very old style and very worn broom that completely compliments the story and emotion. My eyes went straight to the boy and I believe the broom helped lead me in. I looked around the scene and then back to the broom. The broom, computer and dirty walls all help tell the story and set the tone of the image. The broom also helped lead my eyes to the poor condition of the flooring below it at the front of the frame. I say job well done.”

I was glad that he read the photo. Could you?

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