Distance

Photographer: Tyler Fix

"In solitude, where we are least alone." -Lord Byron

I captured this photo of a man who--before I clicked the button--had seemed jovial, good-spirited, and content with the day's new morning; he even made me laugh with a joke or two. However, when I requested that I take his picture, he elected to not translate his light words into a smile. Rather, he did not express a slight grin, nor did he look at the camera. The quote accompanying my comment encapsulates the immediate emotion that I felt when I looked at this gentleman. Despite being in a park where there were people playing volleyball and people walking dogs and people like me taking pictures, the sense of solitude that he conveys in the photograph is heavy and powerful. The notion that he is alone--despite my presence and kind demeanor--reverberates from this image. What is he thinking of? What is he looking at? I ask my self these questions each of the countless times that I stare at this photograph. Is he reflecting on his life? Is he wondering how he got here? Is he escaping into solitude amidst the presence a stranger--me--because, perhaps, that is all that he has known more recently in is life? Is he reflecting on how his economic struggle through life is a burden that he carries alone, without the care or thought of any other passing individual? Or does he just want to be left in physical solitude, without the bothersome company of just another student who knows nothing about being 'homeless'--just another student who does not comprehend, acknowledge, nor aid the community of people in Tucson like himself. Does he think his existence and role in life are far too trivial to pester the likes of a college student--that resting in his solitude is exactly where he ought to be?