Opportunity

I drove in to work today, and stopped by Justin’s to pick him up. On the way to his house, I noticed this guy sleeping in a doorway. I thought to myself "Wow, what a great image." After Justin hopped in the car, I circled around near the guy, stopped, got out, and snapped a picture.

I felt creepy taking the photo, but went ahead and did it anyways. Even now, I’m not sure if what I did was rude, disrespectful, or what. I wonder how photographers (the real ones, the professionals and the photojournalists) deal with this sort of thing. I’m capturing someone else’s suffering, but doing so out of a very selfish motivation. Sure, I felt sad and sorry for this person. But I know I didn’t think that immediately; what I thought, immediately, was "Great picture."

I don’t think it was disrespectful, mainly because I wanted to portray how sad this moment was. I guess that’s a decent enough intention isn’t it? At the time I was (and looking at this now, I still am) in awe of the human body, how demanding it is when it needs food or rest, how flexible and accomodating it is. I was amazed that someone could sleep so soundly in that position, sitting on stone; I was amazed at the exhaustion that must have occurred, to allow someone to fall asleep, sitting on stone.

I was amazed at how quick I was to replace sympathy with opportunity.