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"ABANDONED": Themed Portraiture. Recreating Real Life Stories

Abandoned
Down on His Luck
By Ahmed Roberson
16 Aug 2008

With the recent 'growth' of my photographic insight, I have decided to move away from shooting Fashion Portraits, and Events.

I have decided to shoot photographs that mean something to me, and all those who view my work.

Although I have been involved with photography for a little over 3-years, I have JUST discovered the works of Gregory Crewdson, Ryan Schude (jpg magazine member) and Andy Goodwin, and like many others, I am totally astonished.

For my NEW "Themed" Portraiture, I look to them for inspiration, and ideas. I look to them to learn how to "see" differently. It's a bit of an 'un-learning' curve when transitioning from Fashion Photography, to "Themed" or "Communicative" Portraiture, so I often visit their websites often...to "see".

As a respectful Artist, I have vowed to NEVER copy/plagiarize ANY of their works, but I do use their works to see, and get a sense of direction....but then again, who doesn't look toward their "favorites" for inspiration?

I am not trying to "copy" what they do, but instead, use what they do to inspire me to create a style of MY OWN.

Moving along....like I mentioned above, I have somewhat moved completely away (I can still be hired to shoot whatever you like though :-) from Events and Fashion Portraiture, and have since started working on my "Themes".

For this particular Theme, I remember a story told to me by a friend roughly 3-4 years ago (I kind a have a memory like an Elephant :-).

He was telling me and a few friends of ours how he had a great job working for a new small company repairing Xerox copy machines.

He would always show up at our shop (I used to work at a small stereo installation shop...they're always like hang-outs) with his Van full of used and damaged machines that he had to repair, and return to his set of clients.

For the most part, he loved his job. The pay was good, he was going to get benefits, and the work was pretty steady even though he was hired on a "contract" basis.

Well, being that he was on a "contract" basis, there was always this lingering feeling that his "contract" could expire at any given moment.

Now, here is where my inspiration from this particular shoot came from.....

One day, while at work, I overheard my friend and the shop owner (they were close friends) talking about how he JUST lost his job, but here's the 'funny'/sad part about it.

He had been riding around with a Van FULL of repaired copy machines. That morning, he was scheduled to return the machines to the main office/warehouse and pick up his next batch.

When he arrived, he discovered that NO ONE WAS THERE!

The "corporation" had simply packed up and left!!!

There was no sign on the door, no forwarding address, no numbers to call, and his key fob to get into the building had been deactivated! All that was there was an empty building with no one around to prove that they even existed.

The craziest part of all was, he was now riding around with a Van full of repaired copy machines that did not belong to him. All he would need now is to be pulled over by the police with seemingly stolen copy machines, which would be the straw the broke the Camel's back.

Ultimately, I never heard the conclusion of his story, but I do know that he no longer works for a company that pretty much never really existed.

Well, with that unfortunate, yet entertaining story locked away in my mind, I decided to attempt to recreate it with my short "Abandoned" series.

Here, I was attempting to show a man arriving to work to discover that his job/employer was surprisingly no longer there ....hence the suit, briefcase, and new "Will Work For..." sign.

I hope you like my attempted re-creation, and I hope it makes a little more sense to you now that you know that TRUE story behind it. I think it came out kinda cool :-)

Thanks for watching, and please stay tuned for more

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thought you might like this submission to JPG Magazine. If you do, vote it up!

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1 response

  • Merideth Dodd

    Merideth Dodd said (28 Nov 2008):

    I had seen the photo much earlier, and just happened to stumble on the story this evening. Lovely shots, and great story to accompany. I like the idea behind this one.

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