Yesterday, while I was driving home an old woman sat in front of me. She had quiet some alcohol and the combination with the smell of old cloths and sweat was…let´s say…not the best. But while she was sitting there…holding her shopping bag that was full of empty bottle…I wished so badly that I had my camera with me.
Without saying a word, her face…the way she looked and way she acted was like telling her story to all the people in this subway sitting around her. It was a story (not one with a happy ending). May be she was working all her life, and now her husband died and the pension isn t enough…may be it s something else. But for sure it´s a sad story. And the wrinkles in her face and those rough hands told me that she had a life full of hard work. May be she was working on a farm…or in a factory….but for sure it was hard work….you wouldn´t get such hands with an office job.
And know image this old small lady, sitting there in the subway at 11:15pm…heading home…found bottles net worth may be 3-5 EUR…yes that woman had a story.
Like I said, I wished:
- I wished I had my camera with me
- The German law would not be that strict
It´s not allowed to take pictures of a single person with her/his permission. So everytime you would take a picture of a single person, you have to step up to that person asking for allowance to have this picture. And actually I think you need to have a written down permission, otherwise that person can sue you afterwards by claiming that you violated her/his personal rights. What a unlucky situation. It destroyed so many “magic moments” I´d would love to save and to share, because that´s a way I express myself.
Photography is on of my longest passions (next to chess…..erm….hm). I have nearly 30.000 pictures taken within the last years. Most of them (let s say 99.5 %) are just pictures. Holiday pictures…pictures taken out of a sudden…but I have some pictures I would call “special moments”. Pictures I took that I really really like. May be caused by the situation…may be they are pretty detailed….I dunno…but for me they are just good.
With a single picture you can express the same as with a 1000 words and that is what fascinates me so much about photography and why I´d love to do it.