I exist.

I exist., originally uploaded by mukul.soman.

This is my friend EC. EC came to the west coast with high hopes like many of us. But sadly life was not kind enough to him, and today he is on the streets of San Francisco....yes he is homeless. Every day when I walk on the streets of this city I see many people like EC who are less fortunate than us. When I look at them, I realize how selfish we all are. Walking besides these beings without even caring if they exist or not. After speaking with Ec for about 15 minutes, I bought him some lunch..and this photograph was taken right after that. He was confused and thankful, at the same time. He was really glad that I stopped by to ask him how he was doing and spent some time and gave him some attention. With tearful eyes he wished me a great day ahead and thanked me for giving him a bit of my time, and for the lunch.

Clicked the image with a 50mm prime lens. But what I again experienced was a sort of intense connection between me, the photographer and he my subject. The fact that I was in his space, and the fact that I interacted with him on a personal level brought out the much needed emotion entrapped between us into this image. An amazing learning curve my friends, an amazing learning curve.

Signing off,
Mukul.