Met this guy each morning when I went for coffee. It was a bit earlier this morning and he was sleeping in.
His sleeping bag was bright orange. Tried masking it away after converting to B&W, but the result was a bit heavy handed. In in end, I left this all monochromatic.
Yeah, it was pretty poignant. I'm an old country boy. We had pretty deep poverty around where I grew up, but *homelessness* goes to an entirely different level.
This guy had a little dog that kept him company most of the time. He was off begging the morning I took this. Now I wish I'd gotten a better photo of him and his buddy...
The dashing cars on the middle on the middle line create a very telling separation between the life "on the top" and "on the bottom" (of the photo). Everybody is moving and busy and only one guy seems to stop, look across the street and notice the homeless person.
I think I would like to see the exposure of the upper half lifted by a bit - just to underline the contrast of the story the photo is telling. My suggestion would be to crop out the guy on the very right - that would also, in my opinion, place more attention on the guy who stopped for the homeless man. Ideally, for me, the basket would not be in the picture but it would have disrespectful to change anything about that of course.
Remarkable, sad shot ... the man on the ground is somebody's son - a child in the past who would have never thought that he would end up so alone that nobody would give him shelter in the time of need.
fgransee wrote:
The dashing cars on the middle on the middle line create a very telling separation between the life "on the top" and "on the bottom" (of the photo). Everybody is moving and busy and only one guy seems to stop, look across the street and notice the homeless person.
I think I would like to see the exposure of the upper half lifted by a bit - just to underline the contrast of the story the photo is telling. My suggestion would be to crop out the guy on the very right - that would also, in my opinion, place more attention on the guy who stopped for the homeless man. Ideally, for me, the basket would not be in the picture but it would have disrespectful to change anything about that of course.
Remarkable, sad shot ... the man on the ground is somebody's son - a child in the past who would have never thought that he would end up so alone that nobody would give him shelter in the time of need....Show more →
I like your suggestions here...
And I also like your last comment, something to think about.
Thanks everyone - really appreciate the comments and critiques.
:fgransee: - particular thanks for taking the time to make suggestions. I hadn't really noticed the guy in the uppermost right corner - what I liked was the fella standing near him, the only one that even seemed to be looking in the direction of the homeless man. I'll crop the outmost guy out with the next go-around. The basket was a distractor - in the end I decided to just live with it.
And regarding exposure... I took this nearly two years ago, IIRC, and I've been playing around with it off and on since then. It was a really haunting image. Got six or eight of them, but liked this one the best. Let me try easing up on the exposure and see where this goes...
