I was in Sydney playing around with some blended exposures of buildings when I spotted "Desmond" sitting by Martin Place. It was cold, early and a smear of rain was falling. He had a trolly with his "belongings", and a cold pizza some good samaritan had deposited on the bench for him, or maybe he had retrieved it from a nearby bin.
I asked if I could take his photo and he seemed quite happy with the idea. He orginally had a cap on, pulled down over his eyes, and I was going to ask if he could please remove it. Just as I was about to ask, a strange thing happened. He took off the cap and "preened" himself, ran his hands through his hair a few times to groom him for his photographs. His dignity was intact. This shot was taken as he was getting his hair ready for his pics. Desmond can't remember how long he has been living rough on the streets of Sydney, and thinks he went to school at Randwick.
He asked me if I had any spare change and I replied (honestly) that I didn't. He pulled out his pockets and dumped about $13 in coins on the bench, along with some butt ends. He said I was welcome to share his money, and only asked that I pay him back as soon as I had the chance.
I have done a very heavy vignette to try and block out the "street furniture" in the background, poles and signs. I personally don't really heavy handed vignettes, but otherwise it would pull away from Desmond. I might look at cropping this pic closer.
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