The Moment When We Catch the Second

I went to the center of Medellin. Cacophonous streets where prostitutes air-kissed me and ragged destitute 20-and-30 years old guys leered as I passed. Stench of urine and loss. Every street corner bustling with cantankerous commerce.

I’ve been many places both high and low. First time I felt better to leave camera at home. And smart phone squarely hidden in the crook of my day-strap.

After an hour I took the metro back to a better environment. Why, I asked myself, did I have to endure the broken but for a voyeuristic photograph that would quite concisely say this is a hopeless situation. I’m not a documentary photographer seeking the human condition: I am a guy who takes photos to fill the yaw in myself. Everytime I frame a story it’s for the fantasy of me. So if I am in a place and time I’m not feeling it—the spark—I just leave.

I did manage this one little photo that mirrors art and human. A middling capture where gesture takes center stage. I like it. Processed it with a push to high key to brighten and saturate the moment. In truth the man with his arm and hand on the fence sat unmoving, giving me the chance to layer cake and find the Botero, then move so the bronze and the flesh counterpointed each other.

Maybe if I stayed longer I could find more of these juxtapositions in the park of the sculptor. I had briefly seen another opportunity, a couple mouth-kissing underneath the oversized gaping head of another statue. But my iPhone was zipped away; I just wasn’t registering the value in the moment, I wanted—so shoot me—a Starbucks for its clean bathroom and sink-in-seat. And a free cup of water with ice. (I don’t drink their sugary cold concoctions since to me they basically all taste the same and too sweet) (And not in the mood for coffee)

Today did I fail or succeed? My life, my job, is to create. I caught a second which I was afforded a moment to get, and then I said, enough, I want to escape this diatribe of a place; maybe if my mind were brighter in the moment it would not have appeared so dark.

After Starbucks I went to Jumbo Market and got two bags of cookies for the rented apartment.