Awarded !

It makes me very proud to be awarded by 1x.com, an online community of exclusive pictures where all images are curated by twelve professional curators. Ultimate goal of 1x.com is to make people feel, their Facebook page tells me. I do hope this is exactly what this image does. You see a close-up of a shepherd boy in the Simien Mountains, in Northern Ethiopia. Shepherd boys take care of a flock of goats as from 8 years old, an age at which our kids go to school, have birthday parties and fool around with their brothers or sisters. His eyes struck me most. I see the hardship in them, I see growing up too fast… almost a man’s look.

I have a large print of this picture on my wall at home. In his mirror eyes I can still see what I was wearing that day, red jacket and blue jeans..