I have decided to switch things up a bit and go for a black and white photo this week..
I was very reluctant at first because I thought colors gave this site more appeal. But then again, it’s my story to tell, you’re the reader, and you get what I put out here. So here it is! 😁
I know, I know, it’s blurry and you’re like WTF?! Let me say that this was not done on purpose, it was totally by accident. I was trying to snap the boy, but didn’t have time to focus well so this is how it came out. Buuuuut…I love it! Don’t ask me why, I looked at the photo and didn’t even feel sad that i didn’t capture it well. I loved it when I saw it. I remember the moment vividly. He was running from one side of the alley, hopping along as he did so, in our direction where we were standing with Maria. I saw it, barely had the time to kneel down, didn’t even have time to look into the viewfinder and just snapped away. They were a couple of kids playing around happily with large smiles on their faces and twinkling eyes. So much energy. They didn’t mind us, foreigners standing there, looking at them, one holding a camera, waiting something to happen. They simply went about their fun time. I think we also felt like kids witnessing that, smiling for no apparent reason.
Looking back at this picture it evoked memories of my own childhood, when no computers and phones were around, when I was just running outside, climbing trees, the gate, the garage structure, walls, you name it. Getting sweaty and dirty was part of my life as kid (still is in the heat of Yangon as an adult😂), with my grandma shouting in the distance “Rouslaaaaaaan! Don’t run too fast you will fall. And don’t get dirty again! Stop climbing that! I will tell your father if you don’t listen to me!”…yeah yeah yeah keep shouting grandma, love you, but no f#!@$ given right now 😂It’s okay to get shouted at for this, totally worth it! I loved running, climbing, getting filthy and what not that presented itself in the form of some physical feat 🏃🏽♂️💨💨💨I felt innocent. I felt free. If I could do it then I should at least try.
You see these kids were playing in a place that probably even their parents never ventured into before. The alleys between the downtown blocks were so abandoned, they were only for trash, rats and whatever people did not want. I will try to go for another walk to take some photos in those alleys that are still abandoned one of these days to show some before and afters here. However, there are a small group of people in Yangon who want to give life to these otherwise life-deprived places. They scout for an alley, choose one, clean it up, fix it (pipes, pavements and so on) and paint it, often with the help of neighborhood kids. It’s absolutely wonderful what they do when they come together. I need to make an album of these. It’s incredible and so worth seeing what humanity and creativity combined can bring into this world! The children who enjoy these newly reborn places probably don’t even understand what is going on. They see it in a way for some time and then they see it changed. What they would have otherwise avoided or been scared of, became their yard, their place to be, play and express themselves. The change comes as a blurry and fuzzy transformation, one they probably cannot fully comprehend but embrace with pure joy. Innocent as they are, they are clueless about this. Ignorance is bliss for these kids. The only thing that matters is they are happy and enjoy the environment where they are spending their time. I call this “fuzzy innocence”.
The juxtaposition of this blurry kid in the photo bringing to mind such clear childhood memories is exactly why I find this photo so perfect!
Do you have anything like that that you can relate to from your childhood? Gosh if a kid was reading this and could contribute, he or she would be my hero! I would love to hear it not from past memories, but from fresh ones! The chances of that happening are, of course, infinitesimal. Oh well... Who cares? I still consider myself a kid in many ways. Probably too many 😂 Let me hope. Let me wonder. Let me dream. Let me run free…
Cheers,
R