This image of a six-year-old orphan boy from Austria was just handed a pair of shoes by a Red Cross worker. Gerald Walker shot the image. I first saw this photograph in a “Best of Life” publication when I was very young. This image moved me because the little boy’s feelings felt so pure and genuine. His expression of joy on his face showed me the power in the pleasure in the simplest of things. To be handed something so utilitarian as a pair of shoes that it could move someone to joy had a profound effect on me. Still to this day I keep in my memory-bank this photo, to inspire me to shoot something similar.

What has inspired you?