The Piano Man

As we walked outside to the bustling streets outside of Melbourne Central, I was hesitant to pull someone aside, they all looked so busy. People walked past with their heads in their phones, headphones on, walking with a firm pace, ‘I don’t know if I can do this’, I’m thinking.

Joe and I look at each other, “maybe we could head toward the uni instead”.

As we make our way through one of the buildings, we are stopped by the sound of quiet piano. It is a boy sitting alone on the piano, air pods in, seemingly having a bit of fun.

 I awkwardly ask for a few pictures of him playing the piano and he shrugs and says, “yea, I guess.”.

 

 

He laughed as we took some pictures, “these aren’t going anywhere, are they?”, (he obviously wasn’t a media student), ‘only to my blog’, I say. He continued to play a little tune, it was clear at this point, that he didn’t really know what he was doing.

“Can you really play?” I say, he laughs,

“No, not really, nothing impressive. Just here for fun.”

 

 

He plays a song that sounds like something you’d have to learn in year 5, a simple nursery rhyme-type song.

I notice that the room is quite dark compared to some pictures outside we had taken earlier, so I adjust the camera and look at the display. The dark effect I think, gives the pictures more of a ‘classical’ feel which suits the piano nicely.

I ask him if he’s in between classes, “yep, just waiting for a friend” he says as he continues to play. Shortly after, his friend comes over and begins giggling,

“I was gone for 5 minutes, and you’ve managed to have a photoshoot?”, he chuckles.

The pair seem like close friends, and it is evident that his friend has never seen him touch a piano either, he definitely didn’t know what he was doing.

 

 

We all laugh as we take some pictures, they must know as students themselves how we feel in situations like these.

We thank the friends and walk away, as I’m looking at the pictures on the display, I’m smiling. The pictures make it seem as if this man is a music composer, and he’s practising a song for his final performance. When in fact, it was just him filling in some time, goofing around in the hallways of RMIT.

I thought it was interesting the effect the monochrome had on these pictures, it made them seem so formal, so serious. I knew I wanted to use these pictures when I had gotten home, displaying the effect black and white has on the meaning and interpretation of pictures.