the first meeting, a photo from Uttar Pradesh, North

Photographer's Note

this is the first time i met santosh (right) and naseeb. santosh is 8, while naseeb is 11.
i met them when i got out of the train at one of the smaller stations to take a walk.
they both had been sent by their parents to clean the compartments of the train to earn a few rupees. they shuttle up and down on trains between selected stations the whole day, collecting at the most 30-40 rupees. they don't goto school, they smoke cigarettes, ganja, chew tobacco and do lot of other things as well.
when i asked them why they did it , i was told told that it helped them when they felt thirsty.

anybody has any idea about this?? i don't smoke so don't know if what i was told is true.

they were in the train for another 3-4 hours and were on their way home. on the way i met lots of kids who do the same. they know each other and have demarcated their territories.

p.s. just for the information:
"santosh" means "satisfied"
and "naseeb" means "destiny"

Fixfocus, ash_parikh, thebecky, arnabchat, jmdaoudal, Bogdan, eleparc, CycleEyes, pridel, markoci, MKING, summersun, efimoore, bnallama, kajspice has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

clodreno (0) 2005-02-07 4:05

Nice picture Sohrab, Like it.. The smile on Neasseb's face makes my day...
Also like your POV, always funny to do that on a train, hanging out from the door...

[2] +

Fixfocus (9385) 2005-02-07 4:09

A strong and clear composition,Sohrab!
B&W,together with the grain works very good in this one.
Excellent use of sharpness and DoF.
Good capture of the expressions of the boys!

mmarina (0) 2005-02-07 4:10

Hello Sohrab. What a sad story to go with this picture. Thanks for the info for it gives more depth to the picture. I think it's a very nice picture, taken from a nice angle, and wisely made black and white. I Santosh' look is really penetrating. Good shot.

kabe (2011) 2005-02-07 4:14

Hi,
Nice shot! I like it very much...
Good work, congratulation.
Well done.

cessy (13647) 2005-02-07 4:15

excellent portrait of these two boys, the angle and the bw and the expressions are great

ash_parikh (2266) 2005-02-07 4:17

Beautiful shot. It is my favourite from your lot. Very nice angle and composition. Also to go with that you have captured a perfect look and the DOF works perfect here. Am curious to know the tech. about the focal lenght and the aperture used here ?

If you have seen the photo book 'If I were Rain', there are lots of stories of these kind of kids living on the platform and their addiction with drugs.

Zepi (22848) 2005-02-07 4:17

Superbe prise de vue !
J’adore ce portrait, magnifique mise au point !
J’adore le regard de cet enfant !El le second dans le focus apporte une dimension incroyable à cette photo !

J’adore !
Bien vu !
Amicalement – Sébastien

maciekda (19895) 2005-02-07 4:26

very good stuff Sohrab, excellent composition, serious look and the smile, hand outside... I love it

keribar (43841) 2005-02-07 4:34

Hi Sohrab,

Nice, nice, nice, I like the drama of the look of the boys which is rendered beautifully in BW. Makes me think why I did not go Black White, and stuck to color..
Izzet

thebecky (688) 2005-02-07 4:37

Great shot and sad story, re smoke no idea how this works! I like your angle and perspective v. much

arnabchat (7233) 2005-02-07 4:45

well composed with nice POV and sharp DOF.
the note is good with your explining the meaning of their names! nice work.

jmdaoudal (82) 2005-02-07 5:20

Very impressive and artistic. I like it very much for the situation tightly caught here.
Great shot
jean Michel

eleparc (24063) 2005-02-07 6:23

Sohrab, this is an exceptional shot IMO! one of your best for me! i love those shots from outside the train that show the cars and inside the cars as well. Those kids surely have a hard life. Nevertheless, you captured a joyful and happy spirit. Superb photograph Sohrab!!
I love the fact that you focused on the front kid with his hand out on the ramp of the window and the second kid slightly blurred in the BG! perfect composition and DOF!
millions of smileys well deserved!

avis2avis (4264) 2005-02-07 7:50

Great shot. Amazing look on that guy. Strong enough to not need the other guy in the back IMO. Hence the WS. Hope you like it. :)

[workshop] [compare] +

Homerhomer (4080) 2005-02-07 8:36

Another top notch shot, love two different expression of the boys and the fact that there seem to be a person way in the background way on the left.
That film always seem to give you great textures.
Peter

pridel (233) 2005-02-07 11:05

Sohrab
Very beautiful. glance and smile for two differents attitude. i like this compo with two worlds : inside and outside the train.
Congratulations
Pascal

Praetzer (209) 2005-02-07 12:16

Good note. Like the DOF and the picture's angle. The TRI-X grain makes me nostralgic.

Bogdan (205) 2005-02-07 13:46

Two things i like, both at the kid in the foreground. His face is greatly contured(just like you would have done if useing a light behind him). Second, his hands--the have a nice hold on the bars. He kind of looks like Cassius Clay to me..with that certainty, and ferocious beauty.
The train effect is nice, even neccesary here, but not surprising..
I will repeat it -- the way his face is contured, is amazing. Amazing. I would have liked it in colour, thought.

I, for one am not doing that great.
But i did get another camera. A Canon AE-1, and a 17 mm and a 50mm 1.2 are on the way, hehe.

ishai (4097) 2005-02-07 16:44

Very good and interesting point of view, sohrab
I like the grainy look and the Perspective is excellent.
The note and expressions on there face is a good story

AnimeshRay (9089) 2005-02-07 17:06 [Comment]

Show Comment

hugolef (4913) 2005-02-08 5:11

Hello Sohrab,
nice portrait of this two boys. i like your POV. Good capture of day's life
Thanks for sharing
Regards, Hugues

markoci (3933) 2005-02-08 6:47

wonderful shot sohrab! most praises have already been said. imo you need the second boy in the frame, once you decided to tell the story it's part of the picture. i also like the bars on the window, for me a strong symbol of their lives' reality, hard place to break free from, just like a prison. technically perfect, can't find a single thing wrong with it. congratulations!

Maru (0) 2005-02-08 7:16

Sohrab, I think this is one of your best.
The intense contrast in the expressions of the boys, the soft darkness that surrounds them in contrast with the light of the outside, the protection in the windows work for me like a symbolic jail for this little kids trapped in a terrible life, IMO, with that hand hangging...
Your DOF is just fantastic.
About the thirsty, is true and also helped when you are hungry. This is used in the northwest of my country too, there they chew coca, not only because of the high altitudes but specially because that help the poop people not to feel hungry.

Take care,
Marisa

MKING (3054) 2005-02-08 17:41

Avis's workshop certainly adds an interesting idea into the mix. While having a happy and sad face together diffuses the tough and unfortunate life of these two boys (and the many other kids like them) it is a more rounded and complete portrait of their life (and it says something about you too, if you can make Naseeb smile).

Tri-X sometimes makes Ilford Delta and XP2 look so boring :)

sn00zie (2384) 2005-02-09 7:55

this is really nice Sohrab.. one of your better ones i think.. i like the smile on naseeb's face. i prefer it without the workshop..though the color correction in the workshop is good.

CycleEyes (24) 2005-02-09 9:52

Hi Sohrab! Thanks for this report, expressive shot, great composition, the eyes ... Nice shot !!

Luko (14000) 2005-02-09 11:54

That's good, I like the idea and see photos taken through transportation means and the life around it, it's a small world in its own... that's what Travel photo is about.. if you had a single choice would you take travel or photo only.. it's two different ways of getting images and storing them.

However I'm not that enthusiastic when it comes to execution, too bright a side to start the reading... too much density contrast between the two sides.

Still above level though 1.6/2 ok?

philip_coggan (11) 2005-02-11 7:09

Nice picture. I do hope you're going to put all this to work some day - such a waste to take all these marvellous photos and then just put them on TE. (Not that I'm complaining at that, but they deserve a more useful use).

alimo3 (6854) 2005-02-14 17:02

wow i dont understand why i miss this one.
i love those two gazes going just through your lens .
Thanks for this beauty + emotion.

Tom
20 pts if i could , young man !

GrahamB (939) 2005-02-15 4:48

This is a great shot Sohrab. Fantastic use of a shallow DOF with the eyes of the front boy nice and sharp. I love the lines of the window bars leading the eye into and out of the frame.
The shot keeps your attention trying to work out the contrast in emotions of the two boys one happy one sad looking.
Wonderful.

Kicka (0) 2005-02-17 14:47

A very good photograph, great composition. The hand on the bar, the expression on the first kid and the smile on the second and the effect from the long train. The first kids eyes, don't know what to say. I really like the exposure in this one too.

efimoore (2126) 2005-03-04 2:05

Such a sad reality. I like the expression on the kid on the right. Also the diagonal angle of the train and the bar add to a nice bg. I think I would prefer the shot if the other kid was not smiling.

morganommer (765) 2005-06-22 2:00

Yeah! You are good my friend!!!

faubry (35447) 2006-03-03 6:07

hello sohrab, i like this image for the glance from this boy to you! very deep, very beautiful! i put tis shot in "regards"them
soon
francine