i shot with wa prime lens, but have to crop to the initial posted image as the original includes some distracting legs of passer-by. was not able to zoom in with my legs as it would have alert him. also, i needed the stool (wrong spelling?) for support since its around 2am. setting the tripod would have alert him too.
wider would have been better as i wanted to create a feeling of emptiness, loneliness, which was my mode then.
due to my own unfortunate turn of event, i was searching for meaning of "life" from viewing through the view finder & talking to strangers during my overnight shoots which when i come across him, searching too.
the white rope and black granide stool kind of represent my happier days and the dark period i was in.
i was into shooting stairs and slopes as well, one can view it in 2 ways, one is a path of getting out, or in my case, down to the abyss, burning hell. as with most of my photos with stairs, always shooting downwards to nowhere.
so you see, the stairs in the background is to me, the pass, was high up, in the heaven, but now, like him, @ the lowest level.