Monday, February 12, 2007

Give a Man a Camera...


    When I first saw this story about a guy who gave a homeless kid a camera, I thought, "well, those pictures are going to suck."

    As it stands, I was not just wrong, I was happily wrong.  Not only are some of these pictures amazing, the story behind how they came to be is equally impressive.

"A few years ago, I gave a camera and some film to a homeless kid I had befriended while visiting some family in San Luis Obispo CA. He had been thrown out of his parents house for drugs a month ago, and been crashing with friends, generally bumming around the central coast since then. After giving him a brief lesson in the use of a manual camera (it was this beat up old Fujica 35mm), I asked him to shoot all the film, then mail it back to me. In exchange, I'd let him keep the camera. I didn't expect to hear from him again, but the kid seemed interested in photography, and he didn't have much else going for him, so I gave him the camera and the film.

A few months ago, I received a large envelope filled with photos in the mail from the kid, along with a brief letter describing what he had been doing since I last saw him. There were about a hundred photos, mostly horribly under or over exposed pictures of people sitting around, but here are the more interesting ones."
    There is just something so remarkably human about this story.  And, there's really not much I can say since the pictures not only tell a story, but they show considerable promise and talent. 

    I hope you enjoy.

(via Metafilter)

-DP

8 comments:

  1. Wow I'm impressed!  Some of them were VERY good!  Interesting.
    Pam

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  2. Very nice. I think I remember someone doing a project in Bangladesh or somewhere and giving cameras to street kids. I hope this kid gets a scholarship to some art school.--Cin

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  3. He has a good eye... too bad the guy has no idea how to find him... sad.

    be well,
    Dawn
    http://journals.aol.com/princesssaurora/CarpeDiem/

    ps... thanks for the coffee tip!  ;-D  I can get sulawesi for my Keurig coffee maker in k cups... I will have to try it!

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  4. This caught my eye because years ago I lived in San Luis Opispo area. So I got curious. I recognized a couple of those photos from that area outside of the city even some were I would say 35 to 40 miles north. He started getting really good snappin.

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  5. Wow! He should be taking classes...he has some great talent that could be amazing. I hope someone see this & they find him & help him because it would be a shame to lose that talent!

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  6. Those are great!   Everyone has a story:)  It's cool this kid was given a shot.....
    My daughter and I did include a disposable camera in the backpack we bought and filled up, for one of the many Katrina victim kids being sent to the DC area.  We included our address, too, just in case, but we never heard back.   Just hope that girl (it was a girly backpack, et al), enjoyed it.   It's obvious that this kid felt heard, and took  advantage of his chance with a camera.      http://journals.aol.com/ceilisundancer/RandomThreads/  -- Robin

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  7. That was a very cool story.
    I let my kids mess with my camera because I love the surprise I get when I glimpse the world through their eyes.  Sure, I've given them pointers as to the basics, but in the end they're going to do it their way.  I'm glad.

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  8. Cool story. Awesome pics. Thanks for sharing. My 3 & 5 yr old granddaughters can take some pretty cool pics.
    Barb  

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