I shot this picture this year when I was photographing a project my wife and I have in uplifting the under-privileged in South Africa. I was at this project in one of the townships, where a very poor youngster himself, are feeding, teaching and being a father-figure to children at a Junior School. I stood at the water tap and waited as they came running to wash their hands before lunch. You can see the two boys fighting to get to the water fist, some on their way and then the star of the image in my opinion, the kid on the left, in no hurry, totally oblivious to all the rush for the water, looking at his hand as if to say,” Do I really need to wash my hands? They look clean to me”. The framing is not perfect but I also like that it helps to show it is one of those moments where you see into the world of the children and it is not staged, a moment and then it is gone.
The project we have gives great support, both financial and support of the projects to the youngsters running them.
All about it can be red on my blog under “Young Community Shapers”.
I used a M9 + 50mm Summilux for this image and it was also published in the Coffee table book that was printed of all the projects. About a 100 of my images was published in the book. The sponsors of our project had about 500 of the book distributed to clients and dignitaries and various attendants at the gala event of the projects witch was also televised nationally here in South Africa.
I am currently working as a photographer, mostly on commercial/advertising projects and love to travel and explore with the Leica around my neck. Like a friend of mine said, where can I find you? – Behind the red dot!