Photographers helping the homeless
By adamg - Sun, 11/15/2009 - 11:51am.
Social Butterfly Experiment alerts us to Help-Portrait, a Dec. 12 event in which people with cameras plan to fan out across the city, take portrait photos of homeless people, print them, then give the portraits to the people they shot:
... Everyday, we walk down the streets of Boston and see homeless people. They sleep on the steps of the churches and T-stations and in the shadows of downtown buildings. And we walk past them. To most, they are no longer people as they blend into the dirt, gray cement jungle of city life.Sometimes we give them change or food, but really, we still dehumanize them because we can't see the person, the hurt, under the rags and wrinkles, dirt and despair.
Help-Portrait wants to change all of that. ...
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reminds me of the time I saw
reminds me of the time I saw Joan Baez in Cambodia. There's children standing around here with protruding bellies, bulging eyes with flies all around them, and skeletal limbs. She looks down and says "And now I'll sing a song for you!"
I'm sure those children remember that song to this day. Those who survived to the next week, that is.
You shared your
rations with the kids, though, right? Or is it better to just do nothing so as not to be accused of not doing enough?
Sir Bob Geldof
He tried to get his musician buddies to work together to raise money to bring in food for a famine, and found out that political structures and quagmires had conspired to create that famine and were going to do their level best to maintain that famine.
So he dug deeper.
I don't get it...
And what's a homeless person supposed to do with a portrait of him/herself? The linked story is down on food and jacket donations as not a way of truly connecting with people in need, but I'm not sure that taking their picture and sending them on their way is doing them much good either.
Me neither
It sounds like they mean well, but I'm thinking that if I was sleeping on the street I wouldn't want anyone taking my picture. Maybe if this was part of another project where the people received new clothes, haircuts, a chance to clean-up, etc. it wouldn't make me feel uneasy.
I'd rather give them coats or food or money.
I third that
"You look like a homeless person. Here, see for yourself! Don't thank me; just pay it forward."
I fourth that
Geez, if I was in such dire straits I had to sleep on the street - the last thing I'd want would be a photograph of me in that condition. Why not use the photos in some kind of, I don't know, fundraiser?
Driven to Tears
"too many cameras and not enough food" - The Police
Well, as someone who loves
Well, as someone who loves photography (and made some money from it), this kind of disturbs me. It's generally accepted that you don't shoot homeless people unless it's part of a serious project. I guess this is a project, but not sure what the end goal is. The old chestnut of "raising awareness"? Maybe if they did makeovers, or a gallery show with some kind of fundraiser, or helped them out in some other way, but just having a print isn't going to mean much to them, I'd bet, or do much to change the situation.
And living in central square, seeing some of the homeless here with serious anger, drug, and other issues, I'm not sure I'd want to approach them to ask to take a shot, to be perfectly honest. Just tonight while walking the guy who always sits by the 7-11 was just screaming at this poor girl, and some pretty disturbing stuff.
Oh good lord
Yeah, awareness-raising, all right. How about the raising the awareness that for about 99% of people who are homeless, you wouldn't know it unless they told you?
It's so much easier to ignore the real issues if you think homeless people are the disheveled people with severe mental illness who can't deal with shelters etc. They won't accept services, so it's off our conscience, right?
If these people actually want to make people think about homelessness and what we can do to change it, how about they create photos and stories of people my friend and her toddler, who are homeless despite my friend working, because minimum wage isn't enough to rent anything? Or my other friend who lives in a car with his two kids because he can't get housing because of a minor criminal charge from a street fight as a young man?
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http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Oh god
Hey art students: don't "experiment" on live subjects? K?
Try doing a little research
Why don't you read this article before trashing a very good idea
http://www.help-portrait.com/#/blog/15