Photos by Tony

Photography and the Human Condition

April 11, 2011

            For this particular project I will be taking photographs to in way represent what homelessness is like. We had the great opportunity to meet up with former or in the process of rehabilitating unhoused individuals. I will be taking pictures of the process an unhoused individual goes through as they become homeless and throughout their homelessness and also the process of them stepping up and getting back up on their feet. Victor’s story is very interesting. Unlike many other unhoused individual, victor became homeless due to a rare disease. He suffers from paranoia and depression.

He is unable to trust people because of it affecting him. I plan on capturing photographs that would represent a person with doubt. Maybe edit my photos so that in a way they look kind of blurry to represent the doubt he has when interacting with people. He also mentioned that he had a family before being diagnosed and becoming homeless. He started going for drugs and alcohol to get away from society, I will be taking photos of liquor stores and abandon building because he mentioned he would hang out in front of liquor stores and would sleep in abandon buildings. He was never much of a begger like other unhoused individuals, he would stand in line at shelters and donation places like the salvation army, so I think I would capture more pictures of places like that more than taking picture of homeless people on the streets begging for money because in his case he would try and get away from people so he would hide himself. I think best way of representing his story would be taking pictures of dark allies and hiding places.

 He talked a lot about his son, so I plan on taking photos of a father and a son to show the appreciation he has for his son. Now that he is in the process of becoming housed, he does not want to rush into his and his son’s relationship so a photo that represents that would be very intriguing