When Photos Are Affected by Feelings
Ahmad Fadhil M (INA AFS to Italy YP 17–18)
It’s been almost 3 months, there are a lot of stories that I have been through and almost most of it has been documented with my camera. I’m gonna tell you about 3 of my favorite photos that I have made during these 3 months and the stories behind it.
I’m a photography lover, I’m the kind of guy that would rather take 6.5 kilograms of photography gear to his exchange year than taking many clothes to wear. Of course I also bring some Indonesian souvenir for my host-family. Also I believe that every photo that I take is affected by my feelings at that time.
First photo that I am gonna tell you about, is the photo of La Foresta, the place of my first time camping in Belgium. This is the first photo that I took in Belgium. As you can see it’s not a really good photo, because everything is excessive. There is too much colour and too much post-processing, but in the other hand I see nothing in the photo, its only some chairs in the middle of a open area in the morning. It’s also described how I feel, since it was my first time in Belgium. It’s also my first time going out from Indonesia and my first time taking a picture here. I was overwhelmed and excited, but in the other hand I have no knowledge about Belgium. I don’t know anyone beside the Indonesians, I didn’t have a story to tell yet, I didn’t know how to take pictures there. This feeling is described by the photo which is excessive but empty.
The second photo that I’m gonna tell you about, is the photo of an animal in the Antwerpen Zoo. It was taken in the 4th week of my exchange. Most of the photos I took are in black and white, has single figure, very dark, and there are things containing sadness and loneliness in the photos. But there is one photo that really caught my feelings, it was a photo of a colobus monkey that looked into my lense. This monkey looked like an old man with sad eyes. When I took the photo of him, he was sitting alone in the corner of the cage, away from the group that was playing around.
I feel sadness, I feel lonelines, but in the other side there is some power that kept me being strong whatever happened. And the reason of that is because two days before I took this photo, my grandpa passed away. It was so sudden and was a hell of a disaster for me. But there is one thing that cheered me up, after my host family knew about this news, they lit a candle for my grandpa. They said that if one of the their family members died they burn one big candle for him/her. I was surprised that they did that for my grandpa, I know that it’s not a big thing but the meaning behind that was a big thing. Then I try to loose my sadness by writing, reading, taking a walk, and taking some photos. And it worked, slowly but surely my feelings were getting better.
The last photo that I want to talk about is a photo of a fungi in a forest. It was taken when I was in a trip to Brussels with my host-family. The photo shows a fungi that looks like a screaming figure in the middle of orange leaves of fall season. It’s a funny photo and perfectly described how I feel. This fall is my first time in my life, I never experienced this kind of weather. It’s so cold and windy, I have to use 5 or 6 layers of clothes to keep me warm. I was screaming like the fungi did in the photo. But also I really loved the fall, because behind its coldness there is a beautiful and warm colour, and I love it.
