“To sleep, perchance to dream”
William Shakespeare.
In Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” speech, Shakespeare compared death to sleeping and the possibility of an afterlife to the dream; the dream that would finally give Hamlet peace and refuge from his troubles in the living world.
Each of the men I found sleeping in the small spaces lined up in one of Dawra’s small alleys represented one of the many new living examples of a Hamlet, a Hamlet who wishes to find a dream every time he goes to sleep, a Hamlet who has endured so much during his lifetime, in the current cruel low class classified world that he lives in, a Hamlet who can only be true, safe and at ease when he goes to sleep.
Inside each of those intimate spaces that these people take as their home and shelter; I experienced the feeling of both the comfort and safety that these men enjoy when their bodies surrender to fatigue.
Growing up, it was always easier for me to approach people. I am, after all a curious person by nature. Though I never expected to connect with strangers through photography, it eventually became easier for me to meet, discover, engage and communicate with people in front of my camera, no matter how hard they tried to hide from it.
These working men were sleeping but I still managed to get into their homes.
Some of them woke up to the sound of my shutter but I managed to convince and reassure them that someone like me means no harm. I was only a visitor to their “safe” spaces and they were eager to go back to “dreaming” as well; so they went back to sleep.
