Phil, a dealer in curiosities

[Stevejack]

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Phil was once a champion ice skater, who suffered an extremely serious car accident. The doctor told him he would never walk again, but over time he did slowly regain the use of his legs. He is still held together with pins and rods, but has since found a new passion - travelling the world collecting and dealing in curiosities.

He still dreams of skating every single night, even though it's been decades since he was on the ice. The dreams are bitter sweet; they are partly a comforting reminder of his former life, but they are also a nightly torment - a reminder of a life which was torn from him. 

I took this with a new SL2 I just picked up along with my 50mm APO (M-mount) lens. This was taken without the use of strobes, so I was using a low shutter speed and high ISO. No complaints about the SL2, it's very nice to use with M lenses.

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Edited March 9 by Stevejack

[Sparkassenkunde]

What a splendid portrait! Thanks for providing the background of the portrayed person - this makes the picture even more interesting! Great photography!!!

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[fotografr]

Very poignant, and a good illustration of how our lives can change dramatically overnight. 

Great image quality. I hope the SL2 works out better than your M11. 

Edited March 9 by fotografr

[Olaf_ZG]

Steve, I really like your portraits and the stories behind, especially this one and “stump’d”, if you are doing a series, you doing great and would like to see and hear/read more about it.

[stuny]

Wonderful, and stronger with the fine use environment.

[Almizilero]

Great portrait, well lit and even without the explanatory text it tells a story!

[Stevejack]

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On 3/10/2024 at 2:03 AM, Olaf_ZG said:

Steve, I really like your portraits and the stories behind, especially this one and “stump’d”, if you are doing a series, you doing great and would like to see and hear/read more about it.

Thank you Olaf, I really appreciate the kind words.

Yes this is part of a series.  I started out wanting to do a sort of modern interpretation of Irving Penn's 'Small Trades' series, with portraits focused on the 'man/woman with a van' type tradespeople that still exist in the 2020s. I was hoping to find independent bakers, butchers, window washers, welders, builders etc. and to photograph them with the tools of their trade. 
But the project quickly morphed as people were contacting me to share what they were passionate about outside of work hours as well. I've rolled with the changes and I'm getting an interesting mix of people coming through; children's entertainers, dance teachers, bee keepers, life drawing models, snake catchers, fitness instructors and also people who've had a life changing event that started them down a new path in life.  I'm not sure what the final project will look like but for now I'm happy to go with the flow 🙂