In the summer of 2014, I traveled to Prague solely for the purpose
of photographing its places and its people. While I was there, I
couldn’t help but observe the large number of beggars on the
street who were seeking the assistance of every passerby.
I noticed this street, well traveled by tourists and city locals. As I
walked down it from the opposite side of where this photograph
was taken, I passed a number of elegant shops that beckoned
customers with high-end merchandise – shoes, chocolates, jewelry
and the like. As I passed the shops, I reached a spot where local
artists, who had been hired by the city, had painted a series of
murals trying to capture the excitement and Prague.
Then, I reached the opposite end of the street, the entrance from
the other side. And there, I saw a beggar, silently prostrating
himself on the ground, hoping that a passer-by would take a
moment to drop some coins in his hat. I turned around and
watched the tourists and other residents walk past this
heartbreaking scene, pushing themselves as far away from the
beggar as possible while turning their heads to avoid looking at
him.
The moment tore at me. This dichotomy between rich and poor,
between the happy and the desperate, raised a series of emotions.
Anger – not so much at the people passing by, but at the
circumstances that led to this contrast of fortune. Empathy for the
beggar, not only for his desperate circumstances but also because
he was invisible to the world, with his fellow man doing everything
to ignore him out of discomfort or guilt or simply disregard. It tore
at my heart and I wanted to capture the emotions I felt in a
photograph.
