I'd taken this last weekend and have been working on the processing of it off and on since then. I'm wonder about posting it -- I did use blurring and other post processing to make the sleeping person unidentifiable. I think it tells a far sadder side to city life for too many.
I do thank you so much for your wonderful comments on my telephoto postings of the buildings at sunset. It was prompted by my critique/mentor group who next month has the theme of taking an image from three focal lengths. I was curious about what a telephoto could do in the same spot (indoors for those who asked about the balcony!) that I had used to take wide angle scenes. I plan to do more with this in April.
I suppose people glance at these persons but never give them another thought! Wouldn't you hate it to know that one of your family was sleeping on the street! The thought horrifies me!
You have really captured the essence of this sad situation, Taffy, showing the stark contrast of the poor vs the affluent, the homeless person sleeping in the open while city life continues undisturbed around her (him?). Your processing is very strong, with good white and black points and strong contrast. Great composition also with the placement of your main subject and the full inclusion of the pedestrians. A strong, story-telling journalistic image.
It's always delicate posting an image of a homeless person, but I think you've done really well with this shot. The homeless person features well in the image, but there are lots of other things going on too - you have really captured 'city' life, and all that means.
I think if you are showing the city off for your project (which you do quite often) then including some of the less pleasant or sadder parts is important especially if you don't exploit by doing a sneak shot that shows their face. Just my opinion.
Sad !! at first I though it to be a bundle of rubbish !! Now the realisation that we have another human being here ,turns my disgust at the rubbish to true sadness at the state of this poor human !
It is hard to see especially when everything around a person living on the streets is so blingy and moving so fast. They have nothing and no where to go.....very thort provoking and a fantastic capture.
This is a great photo and tells such a sad story. I am all for posting a shot like this because photography is about life after all and sadly this is part of life. If nobody takes photos like this, how is the problem of homelessness ever going to be dealt with.
Well done for giving this poor person a voice. Hopefully the issue of homelessness will be a thing of the past one day.
Really quite a lot to take in on this street shot. You have done it beautifully with a great deal of thought and compassion obviously. The composition is terrific - excellent subject matter for b&w - and much for the rest of us to think about.
Well documented! These kind of scenes always strike me hard cos you donĀ“t see this in Scandinavia, at least not in Finland -sure technically speaking we have some homeless people but you never see them on the streets and they have always kind of chocen to be homeless for we have such high social benefits that nobody is forced to live in the streets, the social servises will provide the apartment, pay the rent etc. CanĀ“t really imagine what that must be like having to sleep in the streets, makes me sad.
@susale There's such a different belief system here about responsibility for others and the relationship between individuals and society. It does mean there are a lot who fall through the cracks.
@taffy Yes there are a lot of differences in our countries, and I agree about personal responsibility - we have that here too, trying to push people taking responsibilities of their life and not live on the benefits but also there is a secure web to back and secure a decent living for all so nobody will have to be without a roof or food. So even if that we pay a lot for this system as taxes, I still prefer it cos I wonder can the individual be blamed to live in the street, is it all their fault and lack of trying? How hard it is to get out of street and get a job for instance while living in the streets? And what if you loose your job and then house etc....I mean that can happen to everybody especially in current financial times? In our society the main value is trying to give everyone egual opportunities in life so that then itĀ“s up to a person how well she/he uses the oppurtunities. We for example have a complete free education in all levels, even the university is completely free but it still does not mean that everybody can get in, just that you donĀ“t have to worry about the financial part of education so itĀ“s still comes to personal responsibility.
Great shot and composition - it tells wonderful story... I like how, on first glance, It's easy to look at the picture and ignore the homeless in the shot - kind of interesting perspective/ reflection of real life.
@susale Right now, in Education at least, Finland is very much on the radar of progressives in this country. Your educational policies are pretty much the opposite of ours and have led to pretty dramatic high levels of performance on national comparisons. I'm not as familiar with your social systems, but it's hard for me to believe that the same would not be true there. We are facing greater and greater disparity between the rich and poor here -- as seen in the increasing homeless, the lack of access to high quality higher education in the country (tuition is skyrocketing because of such severe cuts to public universities for example), kids are graduating with huge debt burdens. It's hard to see how this path will change. I know as people get older, the trend is to think current policies are terrible and the past was better. But in terms of education and social services here, and the disappearing middle class, it's tough to see how this is an improvement. Obviously, there is a lot of debate here as people will argue just as strongly against a more progressive view. But, it's hard for me to see these changes as positive for our country.
A sad but good shot. I never take for granted what we have as there are so many that have sad stories today that get them to this place and it could happen easily to so many today unfortunately. Hope I am making sense in what I write here. FAV for your photo.
@taffy Yes times are tough everywhere and the future of our social system is not certain, who knows how things will be in 20 years or so. In Finland we have progressive taxation so the more you earn, the more you pay taxes almost up to 50% income taxation. Practically speaking itĀ“s pretty impossible to get very rich by working alone and our politics have been aiming to smooth the differences between classes so there havenĀ“t been that big differences between rich and poor, and anyway we donĀ“t have those kind of rich people that live in USA in this country and in any case there are very few very rich peope here anyway but times are chancing here too. The cuts in our social system and in public health care does have the same effect here too; the poor are getting poorer but we still have it under control Finlad is so conciderably smaller country compared to yours, thereĀ“s only 5 million people in total so what works in a small country like ours does not necessarily work in a bigger country so I am not sure what to think about the progressive debat in your country, those things yiu mention sound bad. In Finland the biggest problem is the aging of the population cos the birth rate is low so that leads to problems obviously; when most of the population is pensioners who will pay the taxes. In case you havenĀ“t guessed I have studied Social Sciences,:)
I like the pairing of the two homeless people on one side with the two walking on the other side...!
Sad scene but as you say all too common in the big cities.
What a great social commentary shot Taffy. I've been fascinated by the thread as I've read through. I think we are somewhere between yourselves and Finland. The use of food banks is rising and the wealthiest have had a tax cut while the poorest sector have had big cuts to their benefits. Job opportunities are rising, but many are zero hours contracts. The biggest thing here is a sense of disengagement from the political process where people don't believe anyone listens to them. We too have an ageing population and a health service that is feeling the strain. I'm glad it is as it is with my daughter's cancer as there will be no charge on her. I saw a programme on the BBC where a medical charity was making visits to people in America. There was one woman interviewed with a reoccurrence of cancer that her insurance no longer covered her for. She had sold her house to fund her treatment and was living in a tent! Our education is suffering too with the new curriculum; the disappearance of levels with each school to decide it's own assessment system and where the teaching of grammar has become a naming of parts! Oh well, that's life.
Homelessness is a tragedy anywhere but with your weather is must be a big killer too. The advertisements for food and jewellery add a sense of irony. Excellent shot.
@ceilidh I'm guessing as the world economy shifts, we'll see increasing problems that can be traced to poverty and opportunity even in the 'western' world. It's hard to see that we are not moving forward as a global society, much less at our local and individual country levels. Thought I suspect there are a range of views about the root causes.
Such a powerful capture. The girl in the advert ppears to be scowling t the homeless person. It is as if they are in her way, that they are something to just be discarded!
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Well done for giving this poor person a voice. Hopefully the issue of homelessness will be a thing of the past one day.
Sad scene but as you say all too common in the big cities.