The Teamster
Ethiopia, Near Addis Ababa 2013
I think jobs must be hard to find in Ethiopia or else people there prefer to work for themselves. This young man sits on his homemade wheelbarrow and waits…for what? maybe for long haul truckers to buy a case of water?
I liked those wheelbarrows. They were everywhere, shoved along city streets by men young and old. The wheelbarrows were handmade of poplar saplings. You could make your own if you had enough money to buy the wheel.
Look at this young man. He is clean and well-dressed. The look in his eyes says he is determined to sell his bottles of water. I’m not sure he liked me taking his photo…we were leaving and I had no time to ask him, but he did not react. An Ethiopian friend of mine wondered if I felt sorry for people in third world countries like Ethiopia. I don’t because I think they are as happy as I am, maybe happier. But sometimes I do wonder if my photographing them belittles them by turning them into an ‘object’. When I think that, I feel bad.
I gave this photo a hand-tinted look by making it a black and white and then bringing back a bit of color by changing the opacity of the blending mode.
Want to visit Ethiopia and see the exotic tribes of Hamar, Mursi and Dasanetch as well as the ancient stone churches of Lalibela? Contact: Osman Ahmed at www.soratours.com