Street Photo Competition 2016 4 : Entry Number 47

Lunch time? A short break? Can you feel the strong personality of the man, and the intimacy of the moment so close to this man? It could be your neighbour, your friend, telling stories over the fence …

I'm Steve Bennish, an independent reporter and documentary photographer based in Dayton, Ohio, working on a multi-year photo series about the impact of the Great Recession on the city of Dayton. My series explores the loss of well-paying industries and how residents adjust to economic loss and inequality. This photograph was taken in a neighborhood known as Old North Dayton. The man is a retired Dayton electroplate worker whose former workplace went out of business. He is eating an ice cream bar outside his home after spending a hot afternoon on a riding mower cleaning up overgrown lots. Given the themes of our recent presidential election campaign and the election result, I find this photo haunting and meaningful. I have published three books, "Scrappers," "A City of Neighbors," and "Parallel Universe." The photograph was taken with a Rolleiflex, Xenar 75 mm lens, using Kodak T-Max 400 film. I use Lightroom 4.