DEK Photography: Beyond Our Comfortable Bubble
All earnings from this post will be sent to @l0k1 - he's a Steemian in a tight spot, who needs our financial assistance. We need to keep him away from the streets, until he finds himself a job. The end goal is a 1000 SD, which will greatly help him in the next couple of months. You can read more about it in my post or his post. Thank you for helping one of our own, even if it's by an upvote or reshare!
I've shot this photo on election day, last year. Politicians were spending millions on advertising campaigns, apparently fighting over that all important and glorious 1000 Euro monthly paycheck. People knew they were corrupt and simply ignored them. They ignored their lies on TV, they ignored their smug faces plastered around town, they ignored them everywhere.
They also ignored this woman.
You can click for a bigger image!
In fact, they tried particularly hard to ignore this old woman, because it was their ignorance that brought her to the streets. But she refused to be ignored. She was there, every day, talking to herself, sometimes shouting at them, reminding them of what they did by simply doing nothing.
So here she is. Back against that classy jewelry store, wearing all her clothes, holding tight to an umbrella.
Don't dare to ignore her.
Be sure to follow #dek-photography for more of my work. Check out my latest articles:
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Homelessness is not a bigger problem here in Bulgaria, overall, than in my home country of Australia, or in the place I got trapped on the street, the Netherlands. But there is less support. Perhaps part of the reason is that in general, if you are Bulgarian, you can get some kind of basic disability pension or benefit depending on what the problem is, and the other part is, although people are poor here, they do actually give quite a lot to beggars on the street.
The disinterest in politics, although you wouldn't know it watching the TV, in Bulgaria, greatly impressed me. In many, more wealthy countries, everyone is actually joining in the nonsense, and think that any of this makes any real difference, and that somehow their country is special because it is less corrupt than silly little Bulgaria, Romania, or other similar countries.
In fact, I have seen first hand in Amsterdam, that this is not the case at all. The Amsterdam city council was probably more corrupt and crony-influenced than anything I have seen here in Bulgaria. I got to work in a restaurant that was supposedly 'safe' even though they had two standing warnings from the council about the hygiene and safety standards. I washed dishes, and rats were frequent visitors to the pile of trash bags that got accumulated behind me.
The city council itself deliberately limits the amount of services for disadvantaged people, and it makes rules that make housing them a lot more difficult. You could easily spot, if you looked, many many properties in Amsterdam that were unoccupied. I met several people who were living, contrary to council zoning rules, in industrial and commercial properties, and the Council has been running a campaign for many years to try and shut down the DIY squatter scene there.
I left the Netherlands because there was no way for me to get off the street. Within 4 months I had a job and I was living in a house in Sofia, and I still am, but I am about to go into arrears on my rent and I am in no position to even go to an interview without facilities to clean my clothes.
I have often thought about documenting the homeless people here in Sofia. There is some particularly destitute ones, but then, again, I have also heard that some of these people are prostituted into this job, I was sold black market cigarettes when I was in Plovdiv, by some kind of asshole bully like this, or at least, that was the impression she gave me. I have heard from people that begging in a significant number of cases, is in fact something of a professional trade, and there is some who are coerced into doing it.
You've managed to get a fairly good overview of what's happening in Bulgaria, I'm impressed. Interesting to read about Amsterdam, btw!
Very strong photo. Upvoted & resteemed.
Thank you, that's very kind of you!
Just superb @dek!
I like very much the feature of making the picture bigger!
Thank you! Yes, it's a little bit easier to see it full size, when you click on it and view it separately from the post :)