So the song goes and so goes this gent on the South Bank of the Thames. He was lovely and quite utterly typical of that eccentric spirit of London sentimentality and individuality.
I can't say this is my best photo ever, but moments are more special to me than technical perfection. It's also one of few images that has been exhibited close to where this was shot (National Theatre) and won a Design Week competition.
Thanks mate!
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She collapsed upon the sodden sand, tears streaming from her eyes, sobs breaking from her throat, her body going limp, giving up, and sorrow owned her.
She had left the house, running for her life, for her sanity, and had not given thought to where she was going. She ran blindly, wildly, and had somehow ended up here, on this lonely stretch of sand so far from where she had started.
Her sobs continued, as she hung her head and lamented her life, when suddenly she noticed a movement from the corner of her eye, and quickly looked up, suddenly ashamed to be caught there like this by some stranger, and then gasped.
For there, rising out of the water, came the figure of an elderly man. She blinked tears away and swiped at her eyes, believing herself to be having some kind of hallucination, but no. He remained, and now he was standing on the water, and was walking her way.
She remained there on her knees, and gaped at this insanity. How? How was there an old man coming towards her after... he did not just rise from the water did he!? That was impossible! Yet he had, she knew he had. She didn't know why, but she knew that it hadn't been some hallucination of a crazy crying woman, it was real.
So she kneeled, and watched him come strolling towards her, leaning on some kind of walking stick, and a great big smile plastered on her face, and he came, and as he did it seemed that her cares and her worries and her fears were simply swept away. His smile became infectious, and she returned it in kind. As he reached her, his eyes shining with an unnatural kindness and empathy, he lowered his hand, and cupped her chin and lifted her face so that she looked right into his eyes with her own.
Then, he nodded his head, and blinked, and laughed a small twinkling laugh that seemed to drift away on the breeze and then he was gone. Just like that, without a sound or any measure of his passing he was gone. Yet left behind, a feeling that penetrated her very soul, and left her feeling happier and more joyous and calm than she had ever felt in her life.
And so she stood and walked off into the day, whistling a little tune and basking in the wonder of the miracle on the beach.
ahhh, this is wonderful...the shot and the selection of it by you, speak wonderfully about you as an observer of the world around you...a real delight..
A lovely simple-complex photograph. I imagine this to inhabit that sacred ground between a candid and a posed portrait ... I'm sure the photographer does not know the man, and yet it's not a stolen moment like most 'street' photographs. Instead it's a shared moment; the man sees the photographer, there is an instant of unspoken communication, and then an instant of shared salute, each to the other. Exactly the thing that makes photography a matter of connection ... between photographer and subject, between photographer and viewer, and (most magically of all) between subject and viewer. The man knows he's going to be looked at by people he will never know, and he salutes them, even more than he salutes the person with the camera. So it's a one-of-a-kind moment, never to be repeated. 9.
My lady friend's an expatriate Brit, and she loves the song. According to her, this image makes her homesick. Since I already liked it very well myself, that's worth a bump :-)
Great, full of character, nice tones. Perhaps a bit sharper, maybe slightly more grainy on top of that and I'm sure this woudl do well across at 1X - 7
What a charming and delightful fellow! His cheerful attitude completely overrides the bland day - he creates light of his own, it seems. Fun, fun shot!
I'm a little puzzled by the title and what he is doing. I don't know if this is the Thames or America. However I do like the shot. I'd like to see the guy closer up or zoomed in, maybe between his feet and the bottom of the bridge.
Well just be glad I'm not voting on the title because I don't like it.. now the image (which should always speak for itself) is great! Nice choice with the black and white. 7
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