We all have troubles when it comes to the way we live with money. How do I make a living? What if I can’t pay the rent this month? How do I make payments on the car I can’t afford?
But simply put we all just need to eat.
After wrapping up a photo shoot in downtown Austin, TX I went to go grab a bite and head back home. Waiting at the local food trailer for my order I watched this walk to the nearby bus station and began searching his pockets. He search high and low, back and front for the money he could gather.
After watching him gather his money I took a picture of him counting the last couple of dollars he had. After counting he walked up to the food trailer and order what he could. He got it almost right away, and then he walked back to the street, looked both ways, and proceeded on with his day.
Now it’s not a grandiose story and I didn’t change his life and offer a million bucks… But he did give me something without even coming within twenty feet of me; a picture. A picture that when I saw on the computer I noticed something, a contrast between the assumptions ‘Rich and Poor’. Notice the car in the background to the right, nice wheels and rims, great paint job, probably an Audi or BMW, A/C on that hot Texas day… And right in front is this man struggling to feed himself with his scruffy old dinner jacket, worn out shirt, leather laced jeans, little to no money, and probably somewhere down the line, looked down on by others. To me it’s a great contrast of the wealthy and the poor.