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.