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Carefree childhood
1st PlaceCarefree childhood
Zigomar


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Poverty II (Basic Editing)
Camera: Canon EOS-350D Rebel XT
Lens: Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6
Location: Belgrade, Serbia
Date: Oct 20, 2008
Aperture: f/7.1
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/100 sec
Galleries: Emotive, Persuasive
Date Uploaded: Oct 21, 2008

 This is a girl from the Gipsy family that lives in my neighbourhood. They have been here ever since. It's sort of an insane situation, this cardboard house is surrounded by modern buildings and there's even a police office 150 meters away. You can find houses like this all over the city. There are even some bigger comunities, so called "Cardboard Cities". Hundreds of Gipsy families came to Belgrade from Kosovo during the Nato and US bombing of Serbia in '99. In the old days Gipsies use to travel all around the world, hence the wheel as a symbol on the flag of their nation. The Gipsies don't have a country of their own but you can find a lot of them in the Eeastern Europe. That's because during comunism they were allowed to stay and build houses like this wherever they wanted. It stayed like that till now. It's their way of living and it's hard to start a different life. When you're born in a poor situation like this you don't have very good conditions to start a big life. Most of them make their living collecting old junk and cardboard and reselling it. The others are just begging in the streets. Most of the kids don't go to school so they don't have much of a future. The authorities always have bigger problems to solve and the Gipsies are on their own. The city tried to help but it's mostly no use. They give them a new flat, the Gipsies move in, sell everything from the flat they can (even the parquetry), sell the flat for some money and go back to the cardboard home and live like Gipsy kings with that money. It's a neverending circle.

CARDBOARD CITY


Statistics
Place: 1 out of 98
Avg (all users): 6.7198
Avg (commenters): 7.5000
Avg (participants): 6.3750
Avg (non-participants): 6.7829
Views since voting: 6950
Views during voting: 387
Votes: 207
Comments: 32
Favorites: 3 (view)

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AuthorThread
 07/24/2012 08:25:56 AM
Astonishing!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 11/02/2008 04:41:34 PM
The flashes of pink here add a lot of visual interest. I love how this is such a straightforward color photo without a ton of dramattc black and white post processing like you often see on this kind of shot. Congrats on the ribbon
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/31/2008 07:32:14 PM
Brilliant shot, congrats!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/31/2008 09:29:40 AM
I like the pic. the little girl probably doesn't know anything else so she doesn't think she is poor. It is a sad life though. We should consider ourselves lucky, I know I do when I see people who don't have what I do.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/29/2008 05:13:05 PM
Congrats on the blue! A very powerful and emotive image.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/29/2008 03:37:32 PM
This is about as perfect of a picture as you could have taken for this challenge. Your blue ribbon is well deserved. Congratulations. :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/29/2008 11:19:21 AM
This was indeed a perfect photo for this challenge, I gave it a 10 and it was well deserved. Congrats on your first place win, keep up the good work!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/29/2008 08:05:06 AM
yep the best one won. Congrats. Brilliant work
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/29/2008 06:53:16 AM
powerful work...your comments are an important addition...
really this is about so much more than winning a ribbon it seems silly to even mention it, simply very fine journalistic work...
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/29/2008 06:34:30 AM
Proficiat on your Blue
I voted an 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/29/2008 06:33:37 AM
Nice notes you added for the photo. Really interesting and thanks for the insight. Well done on the ribbon too.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/29/2008 06:03:07 AM
cestitam. odlicna fotografija !! svidja mi se film okvir

(congratulations. great photograph !! i like the movie border)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/29/2008 05:40:05 AM
Very well done, congrats!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/29/2008 03:27:00 AM
holy crap, dude, grats on a well deserved win!!!
Quite ironic to finish off your "career" as a gipsy photographer by winning a blue in a challenge isn't it...;)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/29/2008 01:55:14 AM
Excellent, emotive image! I feel so sorry for the poor kid (hope she's well loved by her family, that might make up for the rest). Congrats on your blue, it's well deserved.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/29/2008 01:13:52 AM
Powerful! Congratulations.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/29/2008 12:44:01 AM
Terrific photojournalism. This was my top for this challenge, congrats on your win.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/29/2008 12:33:33 AM
excellent gritty street photography, so deserving of a winner, and congrats on your first blue. Stirring photo.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/29/2008 12:31:08 AM
This was a really MOVING shot! I am SO happy that it won a ribbon....first and foremost for your sake, but mostly because it may be one of the very few times that we will see an entry in here that doesn't necessarily have the "DPC, technical perfection, stock shot" look to it actually ribbon!!!

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR RIBBON AND YOUR TRIUMPH IN RIBBONING WITH A SHOT WITH TRUE MEANING...NOT JUST "THE LOOK"!!!!!

Message edited by author 2008-10-29 00:32:06.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/29/2008 12:08:37 AM
wow, this is a very good photograph! interesting choice of title. Amazing in a horrific sense of the word.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
10/28/2008 06:48:12 PM
Powerful title and like the border.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/28/2008 01:23:16 PM
Wow, poor girl. What a disgusting place! I want to see a bit more of her face though, while still keeping the atmosphere. Not that I dock for the title, but I would think that this girl is too burdened for her childhood to be called carefree.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/28/2008 10:28:28 AM
This is a hard life for any child. A cardboard and wooden house. It looks like it is ready to fall down in a bad storm. The garbage all around the building shows a slum for the poor. I see hope and sadness in this picture. Hope is that the young child is the future and sadness that she lives in such squalor.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/27/2008 09:15:02 AM
Real poverty!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/25/2008 08:31:52 PM
So sad but true. Very nicely portrayed. 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/25/2008 04:48:18 AM
The semi-pano effect captures plenty of detail
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/24/2008 11:47:33 PM
This definitely says poverty. The child is so small in this. I'd like to either see her much closer to the camera or be closer or else zoom or crop in tighter so we can see her better.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/24/2008 06:48:41 PM
Child looks maybe a little too well dressed to be in poverty, other than that a great pic.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/24/2008 05:18:00 PM
what a place. damn this is so sad
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/24/2008 04:18:49 PM
great image! I don't like particularly the 16:9 format but here work.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/22/2008 08:21:02 PM
nice set up shot! you should have cropped in a little closer though...
;)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 10/22/2008 08:51:03 AM
Full impact. Not a lot more to say, is there?
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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