“So what are you going to do then huh Felix?”…
Speaking in hurried tones to a young 24 year old man who pushed his way to the front of the throng of children at our feet… softly he was telling us that “you're exploiting the children”…taking photos of them as they're hungry rushing and running over one another to get a piece of candy” and maybe on one level he may well have been right. Not about the exploitation but the scene did look similar to words on the statue of liberty… “their tired masses yearning to breath free”… there was something in his words that were worth paying attention to…
Never freelancing, we were working with the permission of everyone from the chief of the village to the subjects we were shooting and finally, we were wrapping the set in the late light and should have taken off to our guarded compound. However I took exception to his comments...it made me pause as we had just completed a few hours worth of portrait photography when the children, about as patient as they could stand it, became restless and so scores of them scrambled up next to us in hopes of being first in line to get a little bit of the candy we had on set. They were the same children that showed up the day before but we only had a few pieces so they were told to come back again today for a bit more. In the dust kicked up from the children’s feet, the failing light growing darker, it was clear that we only had a short amount of time left before it went completely dark. Admittedly, I wanted to make him see that he was wrong and even as staff tried to rush him away...I reached out for them to ease up, to let him go. He made a simple “accusation”...made in a simple way and while it didn’t feel like it belonged to me technically...it did however hit a cord in my heart and I wanted to hear what he had to say.
It triggered something inside which made me stand and listen to what he had to say. His voice and words felt sincere and I wanted to prove to him that it wasn’t that simple "to take care of everyone" and so instead of seeking the safety of the land cruiser I pulled him close to me with my hand outstretched in a sign of friendship…hoping that he’d take it of course and yet at the same time I became increasingly aware, from the looks on the faces of those watching from the edges, that all of this intensity could quickly unravel into something dark. Our compound was on the other side of the village and I didn't want my team cut off from the relative safety it provided - we were "on the streets" and we had to be careful...
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