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Herman Cater
Slovenia
Nominee
"MR. X "
This photo is from a world success series named “Forgotten. Mr. Stanko’s Last Days”. One hour walk from the nearest village in the mountains in the middle of nowhere I met an 80 year old man. His name was Stanko. It is a sad story. I learned that he had nine children, but nobody would take care of him. His wife died long ago. He had little money and would spend all on cigarettes and wine. Living alone in nature made him happy. He had some land and sheep. The winter of 2008-2009 was very harsh, with no heater and unable to make fire, he sadly died of cold. I felt a great pain when I found out he died. I still remember his eyes. They were like mirrors. Named after the generic term Mr. X., to me Stanko could embody all old and poor people. Photographing Stanko and listening to his stories was a great experience for me. It forced me to intensively think about life values. The collection is also a sociological study. It influences the spectator to think about it.
Biography: Born Slovenia 1941. After his studies he worked as an English teacher and later as an Adviser for foreign languages until his retirement 1991. In 1985 he contracted viral meningitis that resulted in paralysis of the upper part of the body. When he came out of coma he was not able to eat, speak, breath. They told him he will be never able to rise his hands. But he managed to recover so well that he can fly a paraglider again. The paralysis influenced his life a lot but photography played a very important role in his recovery. He described his experience about his recovery in the book �Do not...
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