Wednesday 8 May 2013

Grandmother and Dead Grandchild, Cali, Colombia 1995


I don't know to what extent this image has been repeated in the past 24 years since it was taken. I must assume it has been done a million times in a country that neglects its poor and ignores their children.
It shows a grandmother begging the passerby for a few coins to bury her still-born grandchild.
The baby has become an object of curiosity for those who slow down their pace and get some coins or an old wrinkled note from their pockets, as they continue walking to wherever it was they were going. And she turns around in search of another sympathetic face who would take pity of her situation to give her a few joyless copper pieces with which to pay the burial costs not later than today.
There is only the untouchable sadness in her face, the picture of an accepted destiny and a resigned countenance, as only the poor in our countries can portray it.

No comments:

Early Evening Walk