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Despair
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So.. a group of us headed into the city today looking for some street shots. It wasn’t a tutorial as such, more so a simple wander around. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to end up with any shots in the bag, but it was a reasonably successful day.
One person we came across is this lad. He was sobbing crying.. things like this make me realise how small my own troubles really are. Processing wise, this is a little different to my usual, so comments more than welcome.
Another nice one and it does show a ton of emotion…….show to me , as you stated , how small ones problems really are when you see a shot like this….
cheers
This a very good but sad shot it just makes you think no matter what problems you have there is
always someone worse off than you.Mick
despair says it all, ciaran
well done for taking the picture, im sure it must be difficult capturing an image like thatthe bottom right quarter looks blurred or something, just wondering why, out of interest
keep it up, ciaran
The picture certainly tells a story, but your information that he was ‘sobbing’ really tugs at the heart strings. I shudder to think what was behind his sobs – hunger? fear? despair? hurt? Handing someone money of course doesnt always ‘solve’ their immediate problems, but I would never hesitate to (for instance) hand a child like this a burger or hot food rather than money.
Did anyone speak to him?Ross
Have to say Ciaran..for me anyway..looking at this shot..any technical critique is irrelevant for me. All I can see is this poor kids agony and the waste of a young life. It is a very very sad and heartbreaking image. This guy is younger than my own son and it scares the hell out of me to look at him and imagine my son in that position.
A very powerful and emotive shot Ciaran. Would expect nothing more.
Robbie
:DThe “funny” bit on the right of the photo is because of bad cloning on my behalf. I should really have taken some more time at it before posting the image. I’ll definitely work on it some more before printing it.
To be honest, I didn’t talk to the guy personally. There was a few of us there and a few people asked was he OK, but he pretty much ignored them. Someone mentioned that he’s been part of a documentary before and he’s been a heroin addict since the age of 11 :shock: I’ve posted this on another forum and people are either moved by the shot or completely cynical, i.e. he’s using the tears as a prop. Either way, I was torn just looking at him.
Thanks for the comments.
Ciaran,
the site of this kid has haunted me all weekend end. I took the shot from a different perspective.
I included the queue of people at the banklink who were all looking the opposite direction.The thing that really caught me about this though was that up on grafton street there were
people protesting about animal welfare outside Brown Thomas. On college green there were people
highlighting the hunger strike undertaking by some unknown basque seperatist. While all these people were protesting
this CHILD was frankly dying in front of us. I’m glad you got this one. My picture will never the light of the day because
it really doesn’t have the impact this one has.
I didn’t see you get this image but I was hoping you did.
Very well captured.
This image should end up in the national press to highlight how our society is failing
to care for the people who need it most.Thanks Ciaran
Graham
I’ve revisited the cloning, so I guess I shoud revisit the thread :)
byrne5012 wrote:
Ciaran,
the site of this kid has haunted me all weekend end. I took the shot from a different perspective. I included the queue of people at the banklink who were all looking the opposite direction.
I’m glad you got this one. My picture will never the light of the day because it really doesn’t have the impact this one has.
Graham, I wouldn’t let my shot hold you back from posting. Personally I’d like to see more shots from the day out (where’s Cian and John??) and it’s always interesting to see how different photographers have a different perspective on the same scene.
ciaran wrote:
Graham, I wouldn’t let my shot hold you back from posting. Personally I’d like to see more shots from the day out (where’s Cian and John??) and it’s always interesting to see how different photographers have a different perspective on the same scene.
I’d have to second that…I’d love to see more shots from the day myself..and I’d definitely like to see your take on this scene Graham.
Before any moderators decide to remove this post on account of my criticising the photographer
rather than the photograph, I have already run this by Ciaran and he’s okay with my posting.Ciaran,
I’ve come back to this thread several times now. Each time I return, I read through
the added posts since my last visit and try to formulate my own response to your image.
And each time I return, my irritation and discomfort increases, so I’ll try to be brief and make
my point as best I can.I’m surprised at you.
I’m quite annoyed at you.
You should be very disappointed with yourself.How did you feel when you first viewed this image on a larger screen than the LCD of your
camera? What was your gut reaction? If you had the gut reaction I think you should have
had, then why the hell did you post this image here in the Street section? How could you
possibly need the approval of a bunch of photographers to know when you’ve hit the mark
and captured a meaningful moment?The question arose in a previous thread (for which I’m too lazy to search at present) about the
ethics of street photography – should you?/shouldn’t you? – and I myself am of the school of
thought that of course you should. Everything, from the most beautiful to the most hideous, should
be recorded. But to what end?What exactly is the most we want from our images? Money or a reaction? I would hazard a guess
that impact is more important to most of us. But impact requires an audience, and look at the size
of the audience you’ve chosen. Less than 200 active members? And what percentage of us will
think of giving more, because of the impact of this image, to alleviate the suffering of homeless
people in this country? Five percent give an extra fiver? That’s a whole ?50. Whoop de doo…
and all for the sake of the plaudits and praise of your fellow photographers. Do you really need that?I don’t know whether it’s vanity or insecurity that made you rush into getting this one posted, but
what a waste of an opportunity to make a difference. Imagine the impact of five percent of the
readership of a national newspaper, or five percent of the viewers of a television documentary.In my opinion you’ve rushed into this without any real thought, or, in a thoughtless and pretty
irresponsible manner. Don’t misunderstand me, I want to you post images like this, but not in the Street
section; you should have posted this in the Announcements section, after you’d done a bit of legwork
in getting it published or broadcast. I applaud you for taking the photograph, but not for posting it. While
your knowledge of all things photographic is encyclopaedic in comparison to mine, perhaps you need to spend
less time learning technical excellence that will come naturally through trial, error and experience, and more
time considering the power of imagery. And as the old saying goes, with power comes responsibility.As for the photograph itself, aside from the decidedly dodgy cloning which an image of this quality
and impact frankly doesn’t need, and the completely unnecessary text (the sobbing and despair elements
are obvious enough), if you don’t take another photograph for the rest of the year,
you’ve nailed 2007 with this one; a truly powerful image.Rob.
I said it once and i’ll say it again
“This image should end up in the national press to highlight how our society is failing
to care for the people who need it most. “Ciaran,
Stunning shot. Well spotted and well captured. At first I thought you should have gotten down lower to eye level, but that would have ruined it. It’s spot on.
Rob: Lighten up a little. Sheesh! The fact that a some of us are thinking about this a bit more, is brilliant, but lets remember this is a photography board.
Merv.
Expresbro wrote:
ciaran wrote:
Graham, I wouldn’t let my shot hold you back from posting. Personally I’d like to see more shots from the day out (where’s Cian and John??) and it’s always interesting to see how different photographers have a different perspective on the same scene.
I’d have to second that…I’d love to see more shots from the day myself..and I’d definitely like to see your take on this scene Graham.
If I must . . .
https://www.photographyireland.net/viewtopic.php?t=4837I don’t have an internet connection at home, leeching off work, hence the delay.
//Cian
Rob,
I didn’t want your post to go without an answer from myself. There are a few things I would like to say:
First and foremost, for me this is just another image. Like I mentioned in previous posts, I don’t view homeless people, ugly people, old people, young people, beautiful people any different. They are just part of this world of ours and I try to capture them. I’m delighted I can stir such a reaction, but at the same time, the goal wasn’t to do so. It was about capturing a simple image.
As for news papers, they publish stories, not pictures. If they really wanted to feature this guy, all they’d have to do is send a photographer and reporter around the corner from their office to talk to them. I have no intention to pound the streets and knock on doors in an attempt to change this world of ours with my photos. I’m happy to just have an audience, be that 200, 2000 or 200,000. By the way, I’ve posted this on a few forums and all in all had over 8000 hits on this image. I guess in a lot of ways, I have to agree with Merv. As touching as the image is and as much as you may feel for the subject, I posted this image on a photography forum for debate about the image, not so much the social and ethical aspects of the content.
Thanks for commenting though :) I do appreciate your point of view, even though I don’t necessarily subscribe to it.
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