Day II: Donald "The One-eyed Blues Man"
Donald One-eyed Blues Man
The second day of my photojournalism project consisted of a lot more walking. I figured that if I wanted to really understand homelessness in Atlanta I needed to do a lot of groundwork.
So that day while I was walking I passed a guy playing his harmonica on the side of Broad Street. He didn’t say anything to me as I was walking, he didn’t even look at me. I thought this was odd considering most homeless people I have met before him always wanted my attention, much like Daniel.
The music he played was very upbeat and it rather uplifting. When I started to talk to him he told me about his situation. He said he was in a blues band and came to Atlanta from Montgomery in the 70s with his fellow band members and wasn’t able to make money playing music at the time. He said his friends started getting into drugs and that made it even harder to try to get back together.
His story then jumped 15 years ahead to his situation today. He said he loves playing music and that he would continue to do until he could no longer use his fingers.
Donald was a very nice man and was willing to talk to me for sometime even though he knew I didn’t have any money or anything to offer him
I hope Donald is doing well.
Hassan
I love these! The first one (portrait of his face straight on) haunts me. Very sad and yet determined. Good job, as usual! :)