What started as a chance encounter has ended up with such a beautiful ending. The photographer and storyteller from ‘I Have A Name’ met a man and it changed his life in the best way!
J was walking around the streets of Bloemfontein back in September 2017, when she met a man by the name of Leroy. The chance encounter became a story with a beautiful happy ending. This is her story:
“Leroy is a university student and came up to me to ask me about photography and how I go about approaching people on the street. I had a couple of hours free that afternoon so I asked him if he wanted to walk around the Bloemfontein streets and that’s how Leroy became my Bloem guide and we spoke to some interesting people on the streets that day.” – I Have A Name, author and photographer
Leroy shared his story and how he became passionate about photography.
“My passion for photography started when the first fees must fall occurred in Johannesburg 2015, seeing how mainstream media portrayed a different image from what was actually happening on the ground made me want to tell my own story. I’ve been in love with it ever since. When I’m taking pictures, there is a certain amount of joy and excitement that takes over, it’s as though the world is listening and waiting.” – Leroy
J then put a request out for assistance in helping Leroy get a camera so he could pursue his passion. What happened next was just so generous and wonderful. A man saw the post and donated his Canon 450D to Leroy.
See the comments in the image below.
Leroy has since received the camera and it has made a massive difference to how he see’s the world today. We love a happy ending like this one!
“I Have A Name” is a space where an anonymous photographer (we’ll call her J) is taking photos of everyday South Africans to showcase their incredible stories.
How do we bridge the great South African divides? Black vs white, young vs old, rich vs poor, men vs women? The divides that keep us from making eye contact with the beggar standing on the street corner, or the stranger in the lift.
CS Lewis said, “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit-immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously – no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.”
Come with me on a journey…the stories and names behind the faces of everyday South Africans living their life in your neighbourhood, on your streets.
I think you will discover that we have a lot in common.
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