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Flappy Bob’s Photography posted a photo: I saw this man from a distance talking with some other men and I thought: "Wow, he’s great, an aged black man, with a pigtail of white hair!". But I was on the phone with my brother and I let him go. Luckily he stopped again few meters later in front of a man recycling and re-painting an old wood table. I came by and I stopped too, without saying anything. I thought it was a hard job to get a picture of him. He said "Hi!". I said "Hi!". He smiled me saying: "We don’t have to throw away things, we must recycle them! It’s a fortune there are people who throw them away so we can pick them up!". I agreed with my head and a smile but didn’t say anything. "What is your name?", I asked after a couple of minutes. "Ban Maharaja", he answered, "I’m a Hindu spiritual father. I belong to the Hare Krishna movement" he added. "It would be nice if I could take a portrait of you", I hazarded. "Why?", he asked. "Now comes the hardest part …", I thought. "Because I’d like to win my shyness, and since I like photography I’d like to do that using a camera, that helps me to talk with people that I don’t know. There there’s a project called 100 Strangers and …". I must have scored a hit because he stopped me saying: "It’s enough, you can take the photo", but being a spiritual father used to speak a lot, he added many other things: he’s native of Suriname but he’s been living in Rome since 38 years, he’s a master of Bakhty Yoga and he had to fight against his shyness too when he was younger because he had to speak in front of thousands of people. To do that he had to transcend the materiality of things. I’m not sure I caught the whole concept … Before going away he asked me if I had family: I answered I was going to pick up the kids at school, so he said: "You’re a good father", and blessed me. Thanks a lot Ban Maharaja for participating in my project! It’s been touching to talk with you! This picture is #36 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page Continue reading →