Lights, Camera, Loneliness, a photo from Cusco, South

Photographer's Note

It seems that the city of Cusco is almost void of beggers and the homeless. The constant police patrols and jump in prices due to tourism has forced a lot of the lower class out of the city center. Now the Plaza de Armas is filled with lights, benches, jewelry stores, tourist agencies and high class restaurants...all made for the benifit of the western tourists. There are only a handful of beggers and homeless left in the. I found this man hunched over like this one evening. He stayed in this position for well over a few minutes, barely moving. I couldn't figure out if he was drunk, mentally ill or just lonely.

pridel heeft deze opmerking als nuttig gemarkeerd

Critiques | Translate

pridel (233) 2005-03-02 9:17

Mark
the contrast of two worlds on the same photograph. the poor lost man and the place clean and scintillating under the lights. at the bottom one distinguishes from the people, still a remote setting.
tfs
Pascal

RandomCameraGuy (3071) 2005-03-02 20:44

If not for the man this is almost a "beautiful" shot. Nice warm lighting, good exposure, and gorgeous archetecture. A nice contrast there.

So they've "cleaned up" Cusco huh? Is it still the crime (pick-pocketing, mugging) haven it used to be, or have they actually curbed that too? From what I've heard you seem to be taking a risk carrying that big cam of yours around out in the open (my buddy was mugged at knife point in 1998 there--I was mugged by knife point myself in Ecuador in 99).

Cheers man and keep up the good work!