In our continuing effort to post up all entries from our holgablog summer compeitition (seems so long ago now!), here’s another cracker by Stéphane, who travelled to Burkino Faso and discovered an amazing country…
Don’t forget, you can click on the photographs to see a larger ‘on black’ version.
My travel to Burkina Faso was really a great adventure. I discovered this beautiful country and met a lot of nice people, but what impressed me the most was that the streets were full of kids, surrounding you and asking you to give them something. And they’re also very attracted by the camera(s) you got around your neck. Talking with them and having a bit interest about their lives is always a rich experience and when I proposed them to take a picture, they were always very happy to do so.
These portraits have something very strong, showing how difficult the life of these children can be, but with in the same time a lot of proud to show themselves as they are in front of the camera. They also have this great innocence in their eyes, and even if they play sometimes the “tough guys”, they’re only children, happy to be taken in picture, perhaps because they have the sensation to exist, feeling that someone can be interested on who they are and wants to take a picture of them.
If photography is a way to stop the time and make a situation or a person immortal, I think that this applies perfectly to these street kids of Burkina Faso. And it’s true that all these faces are now, in a way, immortal, being for me a strong remembrance of this travel and revealing something universal on what a child can be and feel, in Africa and in an universal sense, all over the world.
I think i’ll remember all my life these extraordinary kids, their happy or serious faces and what I learned about them.
Comments
cool…
Great!!!
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Thanks for publishing this!!
))