Heap of hope - The trash-picker

Heap of hope, originally uploaded by BornJavanese.

This is the first picture of mine, which I toke to train my empathy during hunting objects. Photography should raise social concerns on behalf of humanity. When I did take this picture on the spot, my heart, soul and mind were melted! I felt something so disturbing that I had to defeat my ownself to merge with the object before my camera. I thought of nothing else but how to capture the reality behind the man. He was not an "object" anymore! He was a "subject" who had his own life, struggle and compassion.

There is like a motto amongst photograpers: "Seeing is believing!" I found an image of poverty. At least that's my interpretation on the man picking up valuable things from the heap. The poverty associates with hope, which drives the man's survival by doing such a rightfull work. [skd]