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A recent shot with my NEX7 and kit lens. Sad subject but I love this camera.

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cawayne

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Why did you not leave the shot in color? I think the wall flowers would add to the shot ...

I see no sadness here, quite a fantastic location, place to wake up to ...
 
I hate, hate photos of homeless people unless they are willing participants.
 
uhligfd said:
Why did you not leave the shot in color? I think the wall flowers would add to the shot ...

I see no sadness here, quite a fantastic location, place to wake up to ...
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I did two versions, one fully in color and this version which highlights the needle and skin. The fully colored version definitely was more vibrant.
 
I understand the sentiment but out of interest - is consultation relevant where the subject is neither identifiable nor doing anything actionable beyond being homeless?
 
It is what you titled it " Sad subject" which the first replier quite rightly explored as well as commenting on the content. Was this with the sincere intention of highlighting the plight of someone who may be homeless?



[ATTACH alt=""Fantastic Day" "]481659[/ATTACH]
"Fantastic Day"



I took this one with consent with him smiling at the camera and he just said one word afterwards " thank you" and I labelled it Fantastic day.
 

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Harbinder Marok said:
It is what you titled it " Sad subject" which the first replier quite rightly explored as well as commenting on the content. Was this with the sincere intention of highlighting the plight of someone who may be homeless?

"Fantastic Day"
"Fantastic Day"

I took this one with consent with him smiling at the camera and he just said one word afterwards " thank you" and I labelled it Fantastic day.
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Your photo speaks volumes, and is in a totally different category. It tells me a lot. The birds trust him. They know him. Theree's no bird seed on the ground - they eat from his hand. This is a regular thing he does. He's likely quite lonely. Maintains his dignity - still shaves. Wears a true hat.

Bet if you spoke to him, you'd hear that his wife died four years ago, and he lives in a single-room occupancy hotel. If he has kids, he doesn't want to be a burden to them. He has a cane and a luggage cart - showing that would tell me more, depending on what was on it - groceries, a sack of bird seed - or worldly possessions he cannot leave a shelter overnight. Note the better-dressed couple not a lot older walking some small dog behind him. They never saw him.

This man represents why I make the Salvation Army and the Boston Mission my favorite, continuing charities. They're among the few organizations that reach out to people like him.

Thanks for this image. I want to know more.
 
Hi Mel, the elderly woman in the background is blind, holding a cane and being supported by her husband but they are still having a fantastic day and I posted this one even though it is slightly out of focus because it had them in it. The fellow was being shunned and cursed because he was attracting a flock of pigeons in the town centre. I think the thread started is a healthy one if we can discuss it in a frank and honest way that widens our understanding of many important issues including the laws around this type of photography indifferent countries. Thanks. Harbinder.
 
I beg to differ guys. This picture that you are scorning actually served to remind us all that there are impoveriahed people on earth. Actually this very picture made me do something good a few minutes ago
 
KelvinHammond said:
sean lancaster said:
I hate, hate photos of homeless people unless they are willing participants.

--
60 of my favorite shots from the recent past
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There is an unusual expectation of rights and entitlements we engage in. For instance, we CAN shoot homeless people in public, and most likely we do it because we know they have no recourse even if they object. All they can do is look grumpy about it, yell, or look away, all of which makes a good photo, right? But try doing the very same thing on a public nude beach. (Black's or Haulover) People are just laying around there too, but... we have an assumption that they have homes and means, and therefore THEY not have the expectation of privacy in public...they insist on it, and they may be lawyers, doctors, or somebody else who can and will threaten a lawsuit if they feel violated, a luxury the homeless can't insure. Why does our level of respect for privacy differ between the two groups?
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Well said. I might add that shooting homeless people or those on a nude beach are both "easy" shots because they are exceptions to the rule. Those kind of shots don't involve any interaction with the subject.

There is an honest approach to the photography of the desolate - get a copy of this epic book.

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Example: Vishniac sees and photographs a desolate old man and his wife on the street in Warsaw and steps into stride with them, and sympathetically asks the problem vexing them. It turns out that the man, a Jew employed by a Catholic for 20 years, has just been fired because a local fascist group approached his employer and told him to fire his Jewish workers. It's essentially a death sentence for the man and his wife in pre-WW2 Poland - at his age, he has no likelihood of new employment. He is, at an instant, reduced to selling his valuables, and then begging

The entire book is full of people at least as sad as the subject of this thread. A child who cannot go out of his ghetto home in winter because he has no shoes. A man in tatters sitting outside a shop where workers are doing reconstruction. He is the former tenant of that shop, but lost it because his shop has been boycotted by local **** sympathizers who warned away customers. He is now a homeless beggar.

Vishniac's images are more than acceptable because he took the time to learn their stories, and to use his camera and their words to tell a story.

You don't need to go to the refugee camps on the Syrian border or Southern Sudan to replicate the Vishniac images - just have the guts to to talk to the homeless in your city, and learn their story.

Give them more than f5.6 at1/100th.

Respect.
 
Mel, a beautiful post of yours !!

I don't know if you're aware of the book "Hard Ground", but it's equally beautiful and poignant, and the author spent time and learned to know every single of the people he shot.
 
Mel Snyder said:
There is an honest approach to the photography of the desolate - get a copy of this epic book.

620b6e7d16a1468f93e1baf43eb1dca8.jpg

Example: Vishniac sees . . . The entire book is full of people at least as sad as the subject of this thread.
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Thanks Mel. I just requested the book through our interlibrary loan.
 
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