There is a certain area in Athens where it is not advised to walk alone even in broad daylight. I "happened" to pass by that area on my motorbike, camera hanging from the neck...
Some people look for hell in religious books... Some people look for paradise in their prayers...
They are both right here! Beside us...in front of us!
A guy is shooting heroin...his "friends" are watching for the cops...
______________________________________________________________ Thank you for your time to look at my picture, your kindness to comment on it and your generosity to fav it. Your support is greatly appreciated.
Daily Deviation
Given 2009-05-17
One way ticket to Hell by =StamatisGR. I was going to give him a DD for another photo, but then he uploaded this one...and within an hour it was suggested multiple times. (
Featured by
`bQw)
So beautiful and technically awesome photo about everyday life in the streets, but it comes with a sad and cruel message.
These poor souls that look more like something from George A. Romero's "...Of The Dead" series rather than human beings, have decided to escape their daily troubles and routines with a mere dose of a heroin. Maybe it's the lack of job, family, friends, responsibility or maybe they're just looking for some excitement and thrill. Whatever the reason is, this photos shows the dark, cruel and scary side of the world that we're living in.
What strikes me the most is that place which looks to be an ordinary street corner and it's photographed in broad daylight! Think about raising your kids near that place...scary thought to me. If you can't feel safe in the day, just imagine how the nights will be near that corner.
Well about the photo...the contrast is just about perfect with deep black details and without blown highlights and the little crispy and clear details are waking this photo alive. B&W color theme makes this photo look more "real" and sad and the tones are really pleasing to the eye. This photo would work in color too, but in B&W it creates a better impact to the viewer.
So as I said, when you look it as a photograph, this is a beautiful and technically almost perfect masterpiece, but when you look at it as a portrait of everyday life in that street corner, it's really shocking and striking image. Truly an amazing photo that deserved that DD. Bravo!
Athens - seemingly the cradle of civilisation! I have never been in Athens, but I've been to Salonica, and I've just seen, through this work, that I overlooked a lot, despite having been to numerous countries. While we all bustle about our cities - the New Yorkers witnessing the amazing urban jungle around them, the Parisians the romantic atmosphere, the Viennese the music, the Moscovites the national beauty and pride- I could go on for ages - we forget that in the depths of even the most civilised of cities - perhaps even our own - terrors like these lurk, and that terror does not only focus on terror acts, explosions, and raids...the black & white just works to enforce the terror of these 'silent killers' that roam in the bleak regions of our cosmopolitan havens - drugs, poverty, the struggle for survival...And now that the world has sunk into an economic crisis, this is more relevant than ever.
The focus on the guy shooting heroin, in the center, is shocking, and summarizes very well those wars that are fought on the front of the parts of the cities we do not see - or, maybe - choose not to see?- that are so underestimated. Even if drugs are talked about in the media, many people will walk out of the room, switch their attention to other things when the journalists stop speaking of sensational hot stories and start to speak about this kind of problems.
A brilliant shot, both technically and emotionally, thank you for raising much-needed awareness.
You said that you were on a motorbike when you took this shot. I was just wondering if you asked this guy what he was actually injecting? Is it possible that maybe he had diabetes and it was insulin in the syringe, not heroin?
I'm 36 and have had Type 1 Diabetes for 24 years and have injected insulin in public like this many times. In restaurants, shopping centres, airports, on the street ... everywhere.
Insulin needs to injected into adipose (fatty) tissue on the abdomen, upper thigh and buttocks, areas where veins and arteries and not close to the surface.
Heroin, on the other hand, is usually injected directly into a vein on the upper arm, wrist or hand.
Clearly this guy is injecting something into his abdomen.
Just something to think about.
"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." -- J. Frank Dobie
These poor souls that look more like something from George A. Romero's "...Of The Dead" series rather than human beings, have decided to escape their daily troubles and routines with a mere dose of a heroin.
Maybe it's the lack of job, family, friends, responsibility or maybe they're just looking for some excitement and thrill. Whatever the reason is, this photos shows the dark, cruel and scary side of the world that we're living in.
What strikes me the most is that place which looks to be an ordinary street corner and it's photographed in broad daylight! Think about raising your kids near that place...scary thought to me. If you can't feel safe in the day, just imagine how the nights will be near that corner.
Well about the photo...the contrast is just about perfect with deep black details and without blown highlights and the little crispy and clear details are waking this photo alive. B&W color theme makes this photo look more "real" and sad and the tones are really pleasing to the eye. This photo would work in color too, but in B&W it creates a better impact to the viewer.
So as I said, when you look it as a photograph, this is a beautiful and technically almost perfect masterpiece, but when you look at it as a portrait of everyday life in that street corner, it's really shocking and striking image. Truly an amazing photo that deserved that DD. Bravo!
Athens - seemingly the cradle of civilisation! I have never been in Athens, but I've been to Salonica, and I've just seen, through this work, that I overlooked a lot, despite having been to numerous countries. While we all bustle about our cities - the New Yorkers witnessing the amazing urban jungle around them, the Parisians the romantic atmosphere, the Viennese the music, the Moscovites the national beauty and pride- I could go on for ages - we forget that in the depths of even the most civilised of cities - perhaps even our own - terrors like these lurk, and that terror does not only focus on terror acts, explosions, and raids...the black & white just works to enforce the terror of these 'silent killers' that roam in the bleak regions of our cosmopolitan havens - drugs, poverty, the struggle for survival...And now that the world has sunk into an economic crisis, this is more relevant than ever.
The focus on the guy shooting heroin, in the center, is shocking, and summarizes very well those wars that are fought on the front of the parts of the cities we do not see - or, maybe - choose not to see?- that are so underestimated. Even if drugs are talked about in the media, many people will walk out of the room, switch their attention to other things when the journalists stop speaking of sensational hot stories and start to speak about this kind of problems.
A brilliant shot, both technically and emotionally, thank you for raising much-needed awareness.
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