Sunday, April 16, 2017

Scrap

(1968)

I was coming into my factory one day, and found two of my staff members talking to an old man. He had such an interesting face that I asked if I could take his photograph. I went to my office to get my camera, and by the time I returned, the talk had become an argument. My staff members were teasing the old man, who had come into Madras from a village to conduct his business, which was buying and selling scrap. Seeing me, he turned away from the others contemptuously and addressed me, saying that he could buy my entire factory and everything in it, if I were willing to sell it. Out of curiosity I asked how much he would pay for it. He said as if it were the most obvious thing, that he would buy it by weight. Bemused, I politely told him that he must be confused about the price of things, and that he could not buy the factory for the price of scrap, and by weight.  The old man then decided that I was the most reasonable person present, and began to complain to me that my staff were idiots. That was when I took this picture of his irritated and incredulous expression.

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