image by
JH Engstrom
An alcoholic sitting drunken in his urine,
a demented senior yelling the remains of his brains out of his head,
a junkie lying in the gutter,
the homeless wearing dirty rags,
an old bearded woman sitting depressed in the darkness of her messy home.
It´s easy to photography all these people without leaving them any dignity.
They all have been once children with the beauty inherent to children,
and the hopes and the fun and the smile of children.
Somewhere on the road through life,
something has happened to them.
Behind the obvious,
there is a lot more explore,
an adventure through the essentials of human existence mirrored by the life of others.
The life of the other,
it could have been our life.
Photography doesn´t just reflect reality as a mirror reflects one’s sleepy face,
photography mirrors the ideas of the photographer about the world as he thinks it is.
Working on the image of reality, we have to sort out the photographs merely depicting the obvious.
It´s not enough to mirror the suffering,
behind the facade of human desolation and devastation there is always somebody,
who in his essence, shares with us the fundamentals of life,
and the fundamentals of human dignity.
JH Engstroms´ protagonists
depict strength and sorrow;
they show fragility and a certain kind of beauty
that is there and has to be found.
