We had a nice day in Oslo yesterday, so I brought my camera along and went for a walk. I had an idea that I should at least try to get a few black and white photos of people walking in the streets.

First of all… this is difficult, not maybe technically speaking, but psychologically. Either you do it in hiding with a long zoom lens, or you ask people to take their photo.

If you do it candidly, you feel somewhat rotten. But to get up and talk with strangers is kind of scary. The two images below are one of each type.

This image is of a man in a wheelchair, his hair was getting a bit gray. His mood was somewhat somber, and he was looking moodily at the sea-gulls eating and screeching, like they tend to do, by the river below us. He sat still for a long time, and I slid up  my camera and grabbed this shot.

Man in a wheelchair by the river.

A little bit later I laid my eyes on this man. He was kind of small, and maybe a bit haggard looking. His eyes were a mix of smiling and serious so I asked him when his eyes met mine if I could take his picture. He looked a bit confused at me, and said “Naaah, I don’t look very pretty on pictures”. I told him that he had a unique look, and that he could agree to. So I took this picture. And showed it to him, he smiled and said that it looked kind of OK, and then he told me a short version of his story. The basics of his story was that he was an ex drug addict, and he had not been doing any drugs for 7 years now. He felt that it was possible to get out of it, but it was hard. He had gotten help though and escaped, not unharmed but alive. His final advice? “Don’t do drugs”.

Clean for 7 years, but still marked.

When I came home I found to my chagrin that my picture was not 100% sharp, but his short story was though. I decided to include this picture here anyway. I regret not being ready with another lens and taking my time capturing this man, but his look is worth to be displayed anyway.