Vulnerability

It's very strange. I spent the day reading about vulnerability in the context of the work I am doing currently. I'm soon going to be conducting interviews with women considered vulnerable in pregnancy (as well as health professionals delivering different kinds of support to them). But after two weeks of reading I wasn't really clear what was meant by 'vulnerable' exactly. So I did some digging to find out.

The woman pictured here came over and sat beside me when I'd left work in search of a photo. I was trying, for the umpteenth time, to photograph George Wylie's clock outside Buchanan Street Bus Station. She was waiting to travel back home, which would take her four or five hours, and she, like me, was doing some people watching. She asked me about my camera and what I liked taking pictures of. Therein started one of those conversations, I seem to have periodically with strangers, that will stay with me always.

She had been a 'victim' (for want of a better word) of a violent crime eight months ago. Two weeks ago the perpetrator was found guilty (or the case was 'proven' as it is here in Scotland). It's likely he will receive a life sentence (unusual considering that human life is less precious, in the eyes of the law, than property). She said she was trying to put her life back together and trying to drink less, which she was struggling with at the moment. I don't think I've met anyone who is just so candid about their situation immediately. Perhaps it's just a rawness of emotion, an inability to conceal right now. Anyway, I asked her permission to post her image (I said I wouldn't mention anything she had told me but she insisted I should). She feels she's vulnerable right now, but she's honest and she's here.

By the way I took the picture before she told me the above.

(First time using Lightroom - downloaded a free trial - it's amazing).