Few time ago I introduced you to the photographer Ben Rosser by showing you a portrait in B&W by him. This time I chose a totally different picture with a total different atmosphere. I chose a picture from his trip to India. I believe my infatuation for his photographs from this trip was due to my dear friend Swati. I often say that to have an interest for a country I need to fall in love with its language, but in the case of India, it is mainly thanks to Swati and our friendship that I started developing an interest for her country. She introduced me to some great indian blogs and among them there is wearabout, a streetstyle/cultural indian blog. The blogger behind it goees from region to region and takes pictures of people and interview them. So far by reading it I have learnt SO many things. Of course I am very ignorant about India but each time I am on his blog I spent hours reading about the different ethnies componing India, the dialects, I even end up on Wikipedia, Google or Youtube looking for the songs of the musicians he photographed.So seeing Benjamin's pictures probably reminded me of all this though he is not from India.It has been a long time since I didn't hang out with a photographer until I met Frank Busch. Talking with him about photography is really interesting as well as seeing how he perceives the world. His eye is like a camera itself. The few times we met even when talking to me, he couldn't help but always finding something worthy of being captured. I envy to all photographers this capacity of seeing what us, people that are not endowed with a photographic eye, cannot notice. And the picture I am going to introduce you to is exactly about that.
Photographer: Benjamin Rosser or Ben RosserBen's site: www.benrosser.com What I am seeing. Usually when taking a picture the subject is on the center. But here on Benjamin's picture what is on the center is only there to lead the way to the real subject. On the center of the photograph we see first a shadow, then the feet belonging to this shadow. It is most probably a man. I imagine him belonging to the working class because his feet look quite worn out by the daily walking he must do everyday in these sandals. His pace indicates that he is in movement and won't stop walking. But while I am noticing this, my eye is attracted on the left side by a color totally different from the ones componing this picture. From the warm and brown tones composing the shot, something white suddenly pops out in front of my eyes. It is a little girl. She is on the ground and I cannot tell why. All I know is that I cannot take my eyes off of her. And no wonder she has such a captivating glance! She doesn't look at the camera but her pupils are like small diamonds shining on her tiny face. Is she in deep thoughts? Is she tormented? I cannot tell. The only thing I know is that despite her dirty clothes and face, she looks like an apparition, she looks pure, and those eyes...Really I can't take my eyes off of her. Funny thing is that she is not on the center of the picture and I thank Benjamin to have chosen this angle, because for me this shot is just surreal. This little girl just look like a little creature, so fragile and yet so strong. Fragile because she is here seated on the ground with all these people coming back and forth and who don't seem to absolutely notice her and strong because she has such expressive eyes. Eventhough she doesn't look at us, we can't help but being fascinated by her.Again the subject, the little girl, is not on the center of this picture and Benjamin didn't consider necessary to show the child in her totality. We cannot see her hands nor her feet, all we have are her piece of clothing and her face. But that's all we need and that precisely why this shot holds so muchc intensity.
What attracted the most your attention on this photograph? Let me know below in the comments!