A song by the river

I have always admired the kind of photographers who are able to approach complete strangers, start a conversation and get very natural portraits. This picture of Magnus is one of my first conscious attempts at that. He was sitting on the other side of the Elbe playing his guitar and singing very quietly while he drank his beer.

What brought him there? Is this a broken-hearted man or a hopeless romantic who sings quietly to the river wind?

What drives a man to such apparent loneliness?

This city is full of lonely people who carry their isolation as a cross but I would like to think that he is not one of them. I would like to think that he likes his solitude and he has learned its importance. Perhaps he is a vivid lesson on the importance of stillness or perhaps he has found the vital sound of himself in the middle of the noise. I prefer that idea.

He sang a song "of his" that I confused for an old German song. It was about a woman gone astray, I think. We agreed that he can use this picture as he wishes under the condition that, should he record an album, it would be on the cover.