FACES IN THE CROWD #2

I did not realize how many faces I had taken over the years. I don't think of my self as a people photographer. However I suppose with over 60 years of photography under my belt the faces begin to add up. Some of these individuals I do not know. Some, I used to know. Some are now deceased. Oh yes, that is me in the first photo with my sailboat up in Kehma, Texas (near Houston). To my knowledge, I am not deceased yet! Which brings me to my next point. The importance of photography. That translates to mean "Real" phography, not I-Pad photograpy. I recommend everyone purchase a "real" camera and use it. One caveat though. You have to print the photos you want to keep. Storing them on a hard drive or even on a web page is not the same as having photos in your drawer. Please understand that photographs mark a point in time. They represent the mundane for the most part, but 50 years from now when you or your survivors see these same photgraphs they will bring back great memories. You may say keeping them on my computer is the same thing. But it is not. Computers are replaced. Hard drives crash. All the data is lost. Unless you house burns down, you can keep the print photos in perpetuity.

I have second thoughs about putting up the photo of "Carmen" the homeless person waiting for lunch at Metro Ministries. I started to do a complete expose on photographing the homeless here in Corpus Christi. I started on it, but decided against it. The reasons are complex. One of the big reasons is, I could be exploiting these people to promote my own photography work? Or maybe not? I do not use my camera as a weapon such as photographers who harrass movie stars to get the "right" photo of some famous person picking their nose which they can then sell to a magazine. I never want to fall into that category. Yet, on the other hand maybe their story needs to be told? I actually take the time to talk to these people when they are panhandling. They are not pretty people yet each one has a story. Most are mentally disturbed. Some of the younger ones were abused by some monster in their home and they found it better to be out on the street than to remain at home. I always try and speak words of encouragement to them. They for the most part are not dangerous, but they are not all their either. The choice is yours on how you deal with them. I am still thinking that maybe their stories should be told through photos. If I did that I would start another web page just for them, and maybe a loved one somewhere would see them and try to bring them home? Or maybe not? What do you think? wd5gyg at gmail dot com

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