{"id":13120,"title":"The portrait that changed everything for me about photography, the story below in the post [Pentax 67, Portra 800]","author":"NoDriver1715","permalink":"https://www.reddit.com/r/analog/comments/1akbk7g/the_portrait_that_changed_everything_for_me_about/","description":"\nIt was twilight, I was driving down a remote road from Doğubeyazıt to Iğdır, in far eastern Turkey. Next to me, the snow-capped Ağrı Dağ / Mount Ararat. It is said that the mountain is the final resting place of Noah’s Ark, and the rebirth point of civilisation. At the foot of the mountain, a lone shepherd and his donkey, accompanied by hundreds if not thousands of sheep caught my eye. So I stopped on the side of the road and began walking to this speck of a figure. He was surprised to see me, he told me I was the first person he had seen in a few days. “How old are you?” “Eighteen, abi” - this took me by surprise. There was something about the donkey, especially its eyes, that emotionally reminded me of Robert Bresson’s Au Hasard Balthazar. “What’s his name?” there was a pause. “He doesn’t have a name.” I looked at the donkey again, noticing dried tears on the fur surrounding the eyes. “How old is he?” “He’s 9 years old” “You’ve been together for 9 years?” “Yes” “But he doesn’t have a name?” he shook his head. There was a long pause, I finally asked “Is he your friend?”. He took a moment to reply. When he finally did, his voice dropped, and he muttered almost under his breath “He’s my only friend”. Those words cut right through me. “Shouldn’t he have a name then?” “Yes.. he should” “Let’s name him then”. After some back and forth of who should name him, he insisted for me to name his donkey. My mind immediately went to my childhood pet dog, who we had lost and I still think about. When leaving, I heard him calling his only friend, by his new name while riding together toward the distant sheep. I had unshed tears in my eyes not knowing why I felt the way I did, but I was moved in a way I couldn’t really explain. I recounted this story to a close friend this week, in which he said “You know, your interaction probably changed his life”. I never thought of that, I don’t know if it changed his life but I know it definitely changed mine. It crystallised to me, why we do what we do, with our cameras or our pens, seeking art out there in the real world.","score":2200,"nsfw":false,"grayscale":false,"timestamp":1707231152,"sprocket":false,"images":[{"resolution":"low","url":"https://d3i73ktnzbi69i.cloudfront.net/5c8b6aa7-776c-4b67-8e3c-95360fdca61d.jpeg","width":720,"height":579},{"resolution":"medium","url":"https://d3i73ktnzbi69i.cloudfront.net/feb20992-2462-4c9a-950f-b77a935ac2a6.jpeg","width":1080,"height":868},{"resolution":"high","url":"https://d3i73ktnzbi69i.cloudfront.net/b6f0c01c-7c59-42d4-8bba-1c1d254474fb.jpeg","width":1440,"height":1157},{"resolution":"raw","url":"https://d3i73ktnzbi69i.cloudfront.net/1eea4262-3ea7-460e-baa4-aa64500cbfb5.jpeg","width":6189,"height":4974}],"colors":[{"hex":"#574f3f","css":"darkolivegreen","html":"","percent":0.38866321},{"hex":"#b5c1eb","css":"lightsteelblue","html":"","percent":0.33714603},{"hex":"#807b8f","css":"gray","html":"","percent":0.1621621},{"hex":"#000000","css":"black","html":"","percent":0.08156165},{"hex":"#cfc0c5","css":"silver","html":"","percent":0.01984186}],"keywords":[{"word":"father","weight":0.0565655},{"word":"donkey","weight":0.04284914},{"word":"friend","weight":0.03610687},{"word":"desert","weight":0.02963507},{"word":"town","weight":0.02828275},{"word":"man","weight":0.02774182},{"word":"life","weight":0.02055522},{"word":"turkish","weight":0.01759944},{"word":"george","weight":0.01439252},{"word":"washington","weight":0.01439252},{"word":"young","weight":0.01418001},{"word":"grateful","weight":0.01416069},{"word":"sheep","weight":0.01414138},{"word":"impact","weight":0.01414138},{"word":"kids","weight":0.01414138},{"word":"family","weight":0.01414138},{"word":"village","weight":0.01414138},{"word":"igdir","weight":0.01414138},{"word":"decade","weight":0.01414138},{"word":"farmers","weight":0.01414138},{"word":"shepherds","weight":0.01414138},{"word":"mens","weight":0.01414138},{"word":"sheeps","weight":0.01414138},{"word":"farms","weight":0.01414138},{"word":"farming","weight":0.01414138},{"word":"spot","weight":0.01414138},{"word":"ties","weight":0.01361977},{"word":"tears","weight":0.01361977},{"word":"eyes","weight":0.01361977},{"word":"human","weight":0.01356181},{"word":"exhibition","weight":0.01224813},{"word":"audiences","weight":0.0114947},{"word":"private","weight":0.0114947},{"word":"paragraph","weight":0.01130151},{"word":"break","weight":0.01130151},{"word":"jokes","weight":0.01130151},{"word":"phenomenal","weight":0.01120491},{"word":"writer","weight":0.01120491},{"word":"god","weight":0.01101173},{"word":"coffee","weight":0.01101173},{"word":"jesus","weight":0.00973668},{"word":"humanity","weight":0.00973668},{"word":"homes","weight":0.00973668},{"word":"pentax","weight":0.00948554},{"word":"connections","weight":0.00907984},{"word":"cry","weight":0.00907984},{"word":"stories","weight":0.00884802},{"word":"meaningful","weight":0.00859687},{"word":"rain","weight":0.00803663},{"word":"thankyou","weight":0.00776617}]}