Tag: moped

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Photography street

Day Three Hundred Fifteen, December 3, 2011

forced to grow up

I have seen it so many times and in so many countries, when a child is forced somehow into a the role of caregiver. You see in them an unnatural maturity and a weight of responsibility that will influence them for the rest of their lives. This scene today in the french concession area of Shanghai made me stop in my tracks. A child driving another child on a moped in the middle of the afternoon traffic… and when you have a child yourself it makes you think even more and wonder at the dire circumstances that would require that parents allow a risk like this to be taken.

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life Photography street

Day Two Hundred Eighty, October 29, 2011

the little stranger

I like to picture my life since birth graphically as a line drawn on a globe almost like a dot on a GPS system if you want. The line starts the day I was born in the Asian continent in a small country called Lebanon and then that line goes on curving here and there, small segments at first, then they getting longer, crossing borders of countries, winding and sometimes going back to the same places and the whole time crossing with other lines of other humans. Sometimes it aligns and moves parallel to another line, like when I took walks with someone, and then splitting off to a new direction upon leaving them. And we meet so many strangers on our journey through life, some we just pass by, others we choose to be with for longer periods, and some strangers for some unknown reason, make us stop. It feels as though an exchange is meant to be had, a brief eye contact, a word, a moment shared and in my case a photo captured. And then we move on. This girl on a pavement in Shanghai just made me stop and the moment was destined to be captured and archived in my mind as very special.

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Photography

Day Two Hundred Thirty Seven, September 16, 2011

lines engraved by worry

When we have too much to handle, when we take on more than we can cope with, when life pressures us beyond our capacity, when our loads are just too big, we panic, and when we panic, we worry. Worry is a cruel artist, it favors the face for a canvas and its best skill is engraving. Yes, on our forehead, that’s where worry likes to play.

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Photography

Day One Hundred Twenty Three, May 25, 2011

safety first, or is it?

It is strange after living in countries that put so much emphasis on traffic safety regulations, like the obligatory use of  helmets, children’s safety, seat belts…etc, to live in Shanghai and witness the loose and almost too relaxed regulations for transportation. This is of course not too alien to me, having lived my first twenty years in Lebanon where everything goes, but I still get a shock each time I see a child riding the Shanghai traffic in this way. All is left to chance, good luck and to the faith that other drivers will be careful. But there has not been a week where I did not see at least one moped, motorcycle, bicycle or car accident in the streets of the city, so there must be something wrong with this picture!