Playful

I had a photography teacher who always told me:

The best photo is taken close to the subject.

That made me think... about my shyness. Yes, although it may not seem like it, I am very shy. Telephoto lenses and zooms are very good for getting close to the subject and very convenient for people like me.

And in everyday life... in this day and age we also have a solution and that is the computer screen or the mobile device, like a bunker. We probably won't be able to say live and straight what we often dare to say through a screen. And then... Are we authentic? Are we sincere? I don't know. As I write this, I'm telling you that I'm not able to know how I would handle a situation that hasn't happened.

Maybe I'm not shy at all and I'm just playing with this moment of writing and expressing the things that come to my mind? I probably live in a parallel reality or I am not living, I just die every day a little bit.

Being a street photographer also brings a lot of responsibility and empathy.

I recently saw a strikingly subject, an old man who was selling mop cloths and was dressed like a dandy. You had to see him. He was wearing a Panamanian hat with a feather attached to one side, a long-sleeved red shirt, buttoned all the way up, and a pair of grey trousers with plaid, which were like textures. He had well polished pointy-toed shoes. He wore a gold watch and a ring too. And he was smiling. The image was beautiful as I projected it in my mind. He was showing his wares and I just had to approach him and wait for him to make a simple movement, natural, without posing. However, he was so close... I asked him to let me photograph him and he flatly said no. I nodded and went on my way.

On my way back we passed each other while I was walking on the same sidewalk. It was like a detour where if someone was coming towards you, you would see them practically on top of you. I brushed past him. He was carrying something plastic like containers that maybe he was also selling and they fell to the ground. I apologised as I tried to help him retrieve them... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, was all I could manage to say. Maybe because I was already feeling so embarrassed... from before.

These photos all have a story behind them, as well as a lot of thoughts I was trying to dispel while I was taking them. However, now they are yours. You can imagine yourself there as a photographer... among the people coming and going... the rushing, the waiting, the seducing and the longing.

*_{At the end of the tunnel}