Photo essay 1
Church in the street
The presence of the church is undeniable in the streets of Victoria. One of the principal provider of services for homeless people are the different Christian groups such as the Anglican and the Evangelical's. The churches are present through a wide range of programs including supported or transitional housing, soup kitchen, hygiene facilities, professional training, thrift shops, food banks, health and dental services, emergency shelter, advocacy and “spiritual” support.


Several preachers promote Christianity within the homeless community and it seems that their message is being heard. I found the topic interesting to report: I went to different events provided by the church, visited its supported housing, met some priests and reverends active in the community, and had homeless people speaking out about their faith. As much as I disagree with the institution, I observe that for many people on the street the Christian faith provides a sense of hope.


Photo Essay 2

The Right to Sleep

Litigation concerning the right to sleep in public spaces is before the court pitting the municipality of Victoria against 70 demonstrators. The litigation provokes a social and judicial debate that could have consequences from coast to coast.

In October 2005, 70 people built a camp in Cridge Park in downtown Victoria. They wanted to protest against the authorities’ repressive attitude towards those who are obligated to sleep in public spaces.

Invoking the bylaw that prohibits loitering and building shelters in public spaces during the night, the city asked the court for a permanent injunction to rid the park of its inhabitants. The lawyers representing the campers argued that it was unconstitutional to prohibit homeless people from sleeping in public spaces when they don’t have anywhere they can legally sleep.

David Arthur Johnston, one of the demonstrators of Cridge Park, has contributed to the media excitement, by repeatedly disobeying the authorities’ directives. After many sanctions and imprisonments, David Arthur Johnston has persisted in sleeping at the St. Ann’s Academy, a provincial building. David Arthur Johnston was almost in a coma when he held a hunger strike for thirty six days during one of his internments last summer.


The city lost its case in October 2008 but has filed for an appeal. As it is, homeless people in Victoria are given constitutional protection against the bylaw. Until the decision of the appeal, they are allowed to build shelters and sleep in public spaces from 7pm to 7am.

Activist movements and organizations that help homeless people attentively follow the cause that could have important repercussions; the ultimate defeat of the municipality could lead to a precedent applicable all across Canada.


For this assignment, I went to different protests and events related to the issue of "The Right to Sleep" and interviewed several people involved. I also photographed authorities’ intervention (some violent) towards homeless people.

I found the activists to be very inspiring. They proved that solidarity and commitment to an idea can have a concrete affect and protesting the non-sense within the system is absolutely necessary to improve the society. I’m really happy with the story for the people I met. My main problem when doing the assignment was that I didn’t have any plan or scenario; I just went to the events without having a precise idea of the story I wanted to tell; I ended up with hundreds of pictures and a headache when it came to choosing only 5! I learned that it is not necessary to work so much on a story; it is more important to have a clear vision of it from the start, but yet, be flexible.



Photo Essay 3
Needle Exchange

The History of Victoria's Needle Exchange:

http://harmreductionvictoria.ca/?q=node/2

For me, the controversy around the Needle Exchange was very interesting to cover and I was excited to do a story about it. But since I had a very short time to do the assignment (I was given only half an hour with an outreach worker who works for the organization) and that I was asked to not photograph the clients, the result of this story is far from being satisfactory. I know that that kind of constraint is very common in journalism but it was still frustrating

Portrait Assignment


Streets

Since I have been working many times on homelessness throughout the semester, I ended up with a lot of material and decided to select photos from different shootings and bring them together in a “portraits folder.” I donated this to the Our Place Society, an organization that helps homeless people. When I met Reverend Al, the director of the organization, he suggested that I create a calendar for next year to bring awareness and raise money for the cause.






Portrait
Hands


When trying to report the reality of the street community, I always find myself confronting some ethical issues. How can I talk about homelessness without exploiting the homeless people? How can I talk about addiction, prostitution, violence, mental or physical illness, while respecting someone’s dignity and anonymity? It’s with those questions in mind that I started last year to shoot homeless people’s hands. Throughout the semester I kept shooting the hands of street people and I just presented the following project to a support institution for funding. I’m hoping to obtain at least enough funding to be able to print the photos and exhibit them. To my eyes, some of those very simple photos carry history, poetry and humanity, and perhaps some social and political message.








Portrait Kristine

When I met Kristine, I was instantly moved by her vulnerability and inner strength. She was very open about her experience in the streets, her drug addiction to crack and her struggle with her husband Billy, who is currently in jail. I ran into her several times and every time, she asked me to take some portraits. For her seventh marriage anniversary, I took some romantic pictures of her and her husband. The whole thing was very humorous. Energetic, happy and loving, Kristine is definitely one of the jewels of the street. She gave me another understanding of the factors that could bring someone to the streets. She enlightened several times the fact that she found in the street freedom, companionship, support of her peers, warmth, humanity…




Portraits of Leya
Research on texture
To finish the portrait assignment, I treated myself with a shooting of strictly aesthetic research with Leya Tess Anderson, a local artist. We basically explored and used the elements available around us to create some effects. We used different types of glasses, water, mirrors, bottles, etc. Playful and laid back.

Human relationship Assignment

Streets and aboriginal people



According to the statistics, about 25% of the homeless in Victoria are aboriginal people. That rate is very high considering that aboriginal people represent roughly 3.8% of the Canadian population. “While Canada routinely ranks in the top ten of the United Nations’ Human Development Index (HDI) - a quality of life indicator based on income, education and life expectancy – applying the same criteria to Canada’s aboriginal population reveals some striking figures. Registered Indians living on reserves are ranked approximately 68th, somewhere between Bosnia and Venezuela…”

“Aboriginal infant mortality rates have seen improvements over the years, but the bigger picture remains bleak. Incidences of mental illness, alcoholism and foetal alcohol syndrome, suicide, family violence, injuries, diabetes, tuberculosis, HIV infection, obesity and hypertension are often several times higher than those in the non-aboriginal population. For instance, suicide rates among aboriginal people are around three times higher than the average, while Status Indians in BC can expect to live 7.5 years less than other British Columbians.”

“Aboriginal people migrate to the city for a variety of reasons. Often, they seek new opportunities like education, a job, or a chance to improve their lives. Some women leave home to escape abuse. However, the city does not always live up to its promise of a better life. Many aboriginal people are disadvantaged when compared with their non-Aboriginal labour market competitors. In general they have less education, are less likely to have job experience, and are more likely to be poor.”
-Scott Fogden http://www.mapleleafweb.com/old/features/native/social-issues/index.html

John mentioned that it is very difficult to work on homelessness without avoiding the usual clichés. He critiqued the fact that some of my characters looked drunk, and that alcoholism and homelessness have been overly documented in photo history. I had no intentions to “exploit” those people’s addiction, or to perpetuate stereotypes, but I found it tricky not to -- inadvertently.

While photographing, I focused on companionship and mutual aid between people, and tried to catch their interactions, their laughs, their looks, etc. In none of those pictures can we actually see the bottles of alcohol that were being shared. But yet they were drunk and I cannot deny it. I’m trying to think of a way to speak to the social issues that plague the homeless and/or aboriginal people of Canada, while preserving their dignity.

Aboriginal dances

My friend asked me why didn’t I report on First-Nations “positive” actions, such as the contribution to the cultural scene? Although aboriginal people do indeed perform traditional drums and dances frequently in the city, and although I did document those events several times, I often feel somewhat uncomfortable in doing so. The fact that most of the time the performers are hired by government institutions to perform rites of Shamanism during political events celebrating Canada's History (there too, adorned with costumes of plastic pearls and feathers) dilutes the essence of these rituals, and adds an ironic and bitter taste. I acknowledge that First-Nations people need to develop some kind of industry in order to emancipate themselves, but the demonstration of their folklore seems so feigned in most circumstances that I don’t know how to document it without being naïve or sarcastic.

Though, I lately reported the Duncan International Aboriginal Art and Film Festival, and it was an amazing cross-cultural experience. I negotiated a free access to the event in exchange for the photos taken. Most of the movies presented showed the struggle of First-Nations People across the world and denounced the effects of colonization, globalization and global warming. It was inspiring to meet artists from all over the world who are concerned about different issues and are active in their community. Most dance performances were intense, original, amusing and well executed.

Street photography Assignment
Streets in reflection


I was very disappointed not to have time to go through my Streets in reflection projectwith John. It’s a project I thoroughly engaged with, walking the city for several days and observing the world in the spots of water on the ground, the windows, the mirrors, the shadows, etc. Some photos evoke the mood of German expressionist films, with the extreme high contrasts and daunting shadows. Other pictures had a very artistic license, and were so abstract that I was beginning to wonder if they were too distant from photo-journalism.























Where is the frontier between art photography and photojournalism? In that regard, the lecture with Adam was incredibly appropriate and interesting, and so was Peter Fraser‘s. Artistic or conceptual photojournalists raise pertinent questions, provoke the audience, and challenge the medium. Also interesting was the passionate reaction of John Easterby claiming that we, journalists, have the responsibility to fight that kind of artistic and elitist ‘‘bullshit’’ because the mandate of photojournalism is to talk to the people, to be understood by both the labor class and the Premier of the country. I suppose that the comment would make Fraser smile. Is it not the purpose of his work to be controversial? In my point of view, diversity is the better way to stimulate reflection, creativity, intelligence, imagination, etc.

Explore Downtown













This was a random project that was not really held together by any concept other than documenting whatever I find to be aesthetic, funny, humanist or journalistic along my way in the city: animals, portraits, tourists taking pictures, people working, walking or loitering, etc.

Street lament



Those pictures are details of the memorial made for Ariana at the location of the “accident.” I believe that the thoughts expressed by Ariana’s afflicted community speak for themselves. The absence of wealth, the harsh aesthetic, the dialect of the language and the ephemeral nature of it all somewhat communicate the reality of street life.