Homage to Chim (David Seymour)

“I do not believe in empathy in photography, unapologetic or otherwise. I believe in sharp observation, always, and in confrontation with my subjects, sometimes. Although I never felt close to the work of Chim, nonetheless I admired his engagement and appreciated the empathy with which he photographed his subjects. There is more than empathy between this beggar in Rishikesh, India and the calf he is cradling like his own baby. There is love and compassion. The beggar, paralyzed in both legs, spends half of the alms he receives to feed the calf whom he has raised since it was born. The calf is growing up and will soon be a cow, no doubt a sacred one, like the tree behind them.”

— Abbas