Loneliness

For the past little while I have been participating in a weekly project called Street Photography Now.  Each week a famous street photography gives a theme that we have to interpret and then we have that week to go out find a moment that fits our vision and interpretation of the assignment.
 
Last week we were given the chance to pick our own theme.  It was actually more difficult at first than you would think because usually when you go out to shoot you just go with the flow and photgraph what comes to you.  But in this circumstance we were going out with theme in mind and searching for the moments to match it. 
 
I had a very hard time picking a theme, so I decided to just go out with my camera and as I was walking and thinking one would come to me.  It was a very busy saturday down here in Port Credit (nothing out of the norm for a weekend) and lots of tourists were in town.  As I was walking there was a large group laughing and playing while walking in front of me and for some reason it made me think of the elderly lady I had photographed by the water a few weeks earlier, and the theme came to me; loneliness.
 
 

 



The images of that lady were just so powerful and opposite than the ones I was seeing as I walked that it seemed like the perfect theme.  What made this much more difficult is everyone in Port Credit is on weekends is usually a tourist so they are travelling in groups or at least in couples.  I figured go out, find someone alone on a bench and weekly photography task complete. 
 
 

 
After I took the picture though I wasn't happy enough with it.   It didn't convey the theme I was looking for powerfully enough.  Sure he was lonely sitting by himself but it didn't have enough story.  So I continued to search.  
 

 
I was happier with this than the first as the empty patio conveyed the story a bit better.  But I wanted more, so I continued to push myself to keep looking. 
 

 
Although this was similar to the first picture with the lonely figure on the bench, I loved the story I saw here with the girl sitting alone staring down the boardwalk as two couples walked towards her.  It just makes you start thinking what she was thinking.  I was happy with this picture for my brief and now was beginning to shoot for fun when I thought I would be a little more abstract with my brief.  The last two pictures are a result of that.
 

 
 

 
I enjoyed shooting with a theme so much that I have decided to continue looking for this theme while I am out.  In addition, I have added two other themes that I will keep my eyes open for while I search for my next moment. 
 

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