Next
manganite

manganite

Posted on 11/18/2007

Photo taken on July  8, 2006

See also...

See more...

Keywords

cnnexchange •
taggedout •
tag3 •
homeless •
utata_feature •
topf25 •
japanese •
nikonstunninggallery •
pay it forward •
bokehsonice!-july •
manganite •
lookatme •
july2006 •
challengeyouwinner •
lljp-8 •
bokehsonice!-july12 •
uenokoen •
ueno •
july82006 •
july8 •
angkorsingle •
challenge-you •
unposed •
sp selection •
tl •
18-200mm f/3.5-5.6g vr •
tokyo •
old •
bw •
nikon •
bokeh •
portrait •
people •
asia •
face •
digital •
japan •
men •
candid •
topv1111 •
topv999 •
topv555 •
topv333 •
topv777 •
topv111 •
beard •
asian •
park •
d200 •
july •

Authorizations, license

Visible by: Everyone
All rights reserved
5 264 visits

A face in the park

A face in the park A face in the park
In the Ueno park in Tokyo on can see a lot of the homeless people from Tokyo living there in self-made tents off blue plastic foil. In some sense they are a part of the park, like the cherry trees, the lotus plants or the tourists. They're always calm, never aggressively begging. Most of them try to live a life as normal as possible, so they keep their places clean, and very often one can see, that they even put off their shoes if they're entering their tents, like all Japanese do if they enter their homes.

Chris Berg, nottiestyle, dusky, Dmitri Breĉalov and 6 other people have particularly liked this photo

27 comments - The last ones
Gunnsteinn Jonsson
Gunnsteinn Jonsson
Very interesting text and nicely put in words. Looked a little bit to clean to me to be a homeless person but as you mentioned he might be one of the persons that takes of his shoes before he enter his plastic tent :) This proves that you don't have to live like a rat thought life is not treating you nicely. Great photo :)
5 years ago.
manganite has replied to Gunnsteinn Jonsson
It's a question of giving up or trying keep a normal life as far as possible, I think.
5 years ago.
Ragnheidur
Ragnheidur
He looks very clean and nice... I suppose Japanese people are better behaved then us europeans :o)
5 years ago.
manganite has replied to Ragnheidur
They try to keep their proud.
5 years ago.
CM
CM
Nice one. I've seen the homeless in Tokyo parks, and I was surprised how different it is then in Europe.
5 years ago.
manganite has replied to CM
Yes, it's a totally different world.

--
Seen in my account recent activity (?)
5 years ago.
Tupelo Honey
Tupelo Honey
Great portrait and interesting story. I did not know anything about homeless people in Japan.
5 years ago.
manganite has replied to Tupelo Honey
But isn't that just an international community is for, to learn about other cultures :)
5 years ago.
Tupelo Honey has replied to manganite
Sure!
5 years ago.
manganite has replied to Tupelo Honey
;)

--
Coming from manganite photostream (?)
5 years ago.
Aref Nammari (goplayer)
Aref Nammari (goplay…
Great portrait.
5 years ago.
manganite has replied to Aref Nammari (goplay…
Thanks!
5 years ago.
tom.k
tom.k
Expressive portrait. Well done!
5 years ago.
manganite has replied to tom.k
Thanks :)
5 years ago.
Shi*
Shi*
Like a Kurosawa film still. Not quite as glamorous as the wandering ronin in this case though.
5 years ago.
Bigoode
Bigoode
it's still sad
5 years ago.
manganite has replied to Bigoode
Of course, especially in a society like Japan, where social ranking plays such an important rule. The social pressure on this people must be extreme.

--
Seen in my account recent activity (?)
5 years ago.
Mojca
Mojca
Fantastic work.
I always saw those cropped photos of Ueno park and wished I'd come there and relax under the cherry trees... then a couple of months ago I found out what it's REALLY like. Shows how little a person can trust photography, really.
5 years ago.
manganite has replied to Mojca
Yes, Ueno park is the place with the most homeless people around in Tokyo, it's a sad place...

--
Seen in my account recent activity (?)
5 years ago.
Stiletto
Stiletto
Super...

--
Coming from manganite photostream (?)
5 years ago.

Sign-in to post a comment.