For me photography
had an immediacy . . . I was trying to resolve certain issues. What
was fair or unfair about how people lived, and how they had to live?
I thought the most penetrating and most immediate way to get to
some of those questions was through photography.
Jerome
Liebling, Minnesota Daily, 1997
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The little boy in this photo wears
an expression and a hat that are both about 30 years too old for him.
He looks directly into the camera, apparently unalarmed even though the
camera and the photographer are obviously looming over him. The angle
of the photograph, taken from an adult height, emphasizes the boys
small size and his vulnerability. By shooting this youngster without
much environmental detail, I wanted to invite the viewers sympathetic
interest in him, from his curious gaze to his gracefully crossed hands
to the poverty betrayed by his cheaply made, broken shoes, wrote
photographer Jerome Liebling. (Documentary Photography, 1972)
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