OK - so the plan was once I'd the less-than-pleasant administrative stuff out of the way today, I was going to post some images from the recent weekend. Surfing, wine and some new friends. You know - fun stuff. But that'll come.
While digging through the paper-war I call my office, I heard a male screaming and yelling outside. Not necessarily an unusual thing in this neck of the woods, I left him to it and tried to concentrate on unravelling the Sanskrit-ian mystery that makes Excel spreadsheets operate. Not having any luck, I tracked out into the kitchen to make a cuppa - to find that the carry on outside was, well, still carrying on.
We've got a Wesley Mission in our neighbourhood, and as I said, it's not unusual to have vocal examples of how eclectic and varied our area can be, carried out underneath the kitchen window. At volume. But this time, the source of the noise was a middle aged male, ranting away to himself. I watched him for a while and as he tired of his yelled one-man dialogue, he fell his knees in the gutter, suddenly crying. The street once again was quiet. I don't think it was the first time in his life that this man was being ignored.
What to do? Well, I reached for my camera - I felt this could provide a photographic opportunity of interest. And it did - while sobbing and mumbling to himself he reached into a pocket and withdrew a stick of chalk. Carefully, thoughtfully and painfully eloquently he left six words inscribed on the road, temporary, until the next rainfall or passing street sweeper.
Should I feel good about this image? I'd be lying if I said I don't feel like I've taken advantage of him and his misfortune on some level, but that niggling itch of conscience has just given rise to a wee idea - but you'll have to watch this space. Admittedly in the grander scheme of things, it's not quite on the scale of the late South African photojournalist Kevin Taylor, who captured this Pulitzer Award winning image at a refugee camp , and hopefully won't have the same effect on me.
To read more about Kevin Taylor, his work and that of his 'band of brothers' I would definitely recommend reading The Bang Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War, by Greg Marinovich. Not a nice read, but an amazing one anyway.
And the six words?
Why don't you just kill me.
Wow that's pretty intense, poor guy. But hey, I would of done the same.
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