Beanie baby in hand Photo

Photographer’s Note

A young girl holds on to her beanie baby toy animal while posing for the camera.

We could rarely give out toys or gifts because there were too many kids, despite donations of over 200 beanie babies, thousands of toilettries, etc, since it could cause more of a problem than blessing. However, occasionally there were places with few kids, and then we gave out the beanie babies. I am not sure how much good it does to give out toys when people are hungry, but we could not carry large amounts of food and donated that in other ways. The kids held onto the toys so tightly, as seen here.

Note on all photos of children in Togo: In 2006, an estimated over 300,000 Togolese children were in slavery!

cmarino, nursez, sarahnatalie, JPlumb, bakes888, casperduppy trouve(nt) cette note utile

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faubry (32405) 2007-03-01 15:01

hello Adrienne, very nice portrait,i like a lot, very good work with Togo children.... soon
francine

biazberdy (181) 2007-03-01 15:08

Great shot;)

casperduppy (1464) 2007-03-01 15:23

Great shot of a beautiful innocent child. But I bet she is very wise for her age.
I like the colours which make this a very vivid picture.
Good note too.
Casper

nursez (1903) 2007-03-01 15:39

Hi Adrienne,
a beautiful portrait,the look of her eyes are much older than her age.Thankyou for a great job,Nur

batalay (21126) 2007-03-01 18:54

Hello Adrienne,

This is wonderful portrait of the little girl — well composed, colorful and sharp. You've captured your subject's soul. Technically you have also achieved an interesting effect — either intuitively, or on conscious, in shooting the photo (or perhaps in cropping in) it, you've managed to place your subject's right eye (on the left) right through an imaginary vertical line that passes through middle of the frame).

In a book I wrote about integrating art and science, 'Math and the Mona Lisa,' I discussed among a myriad topics a discovery made in 1998 by the English pyschologist, Christopher Tyler, who lives in San Francisco — that in almost all great portraits by the masters -- Leonardo, Rembrandt, even Picasso — it is seen that the artist has focused on one eye (not the nose). In almost all cases, this is intuitive. (In Leonardo, it might be different. He knew more than the normal genius.) Later in a conference I chaired in Seoul, Korea, I had Dr. Tyler serve as one of the speakers, in order to learn more about the discovery that made the front page of the New York Times.

Superb portrait of the sad little girl!

Warm regards from Virginia,

Bulent

sarahnatalie (693) 2007-03-01 22:11

Hi Adrienne,
There seems to be something sad in the eyes of this beautiful child. I really like the portrait you've made as well as the good note. It may seem inconsequential to give toys when people are starving, but it was obviously very important to this girl. I really like this shot.
Sarah

JPlumb (3153) 2007-03-02 1:24

Hi Adrienne, this is a fantastic shot. You've positioned this little girl perfectly in this frame. To see her clutching that doll like that is kind of heart wrenching.

Thanks, John

bakes888 (18327) 2007-03-02 3:03

Hi Adrienne. Sad story but nice photo. Great portrait. Well composed and sharp as a tack. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers, Paul.

emilbo (9569) 2007-03-03 18:16

Allô Adrienne!
Un merveilleux portrait d'enfant au regard qui en dit long. Bonne composition et clarté d'image. Ta note est excellente.
Bonne fin de semaine!
Emilius

dareco (17104) 2007-08-18 0:27

Another beautiful child!! A great portrait and beautiful story to go with it. I love sending gifts to my sponsored children in third world countries, but the difference being, I don't get to see their reactions! How wonderful that must feel!!