Photographs

Here are a few photographs from various shoots around Charing Cross of a couple local chaps who sleep rough around there every night.

 

 

Simple Black & White Conversion

 

 

Black and white conversion with a little burning and contrast adjustment

 

 

This old chap who I believe has liver problems due to the yellowing of his skin tone. I adjusted this in post by adding a highpass filter and overlaying.

 

All just experiements at this stage to see what may work and what may not work.

 

 

 

 

Spending Time in Charing Cross

Over the past weekend I decided to spend a few hours around Charing Cross Station both during the day and during much of the night. Getting to know more of the homeless around the area.

 

All very interesting and unusual characters, all very friendly and happy for my to photograph them, at a cost of course.

 

 

Brainstorming on what and how I could turn this into a breif I thought of getting three to four photographs of each homelss person.

 

Face

Hands

P.O.V - What they see on a day to day basis

 

All in an attempt to get people to 'listen' and to stop ignoring the homeless like so many do every day. Trying to create something at least slightly powerful and photojouranlistic.

Contact - St Martins In The Feilds

I contacted St Martins In The Feilds in an attempt to get some access to their clients however my request was denied.

< Dear Josh

Thank you for your email but – unfortunately – we cannot give you access to our clients or our centre in order to complete your project.

What we are looking for is a Digital Media Volunteer who is willing to assist clients completetheir projects.

We often get approached by students or people who want access to either our clients or our centre in order to engage in some personal project and we always have to refuse such requests as we can see no tangible benefit to the homeless people whose needs we are here to meet first and foremost.

Sorry I cannot be of more assistance in this instance and I wish you success in your endeavour.

Sincerely

Lance Kuhn

Volunteer Manager >

 

None the less as mentioned before I do have many contacts within the homeless community so this is not much of a loss.

Further Research - St Martins In The Feilds

On doing some further research on the subject of the homless and those sleeping rough I looked into St Martins In The Feilds Church in Charing Cross/Trafalgar Square when speaking to one of their staff it was mentioned they are looking for Photographers to volunteer/create projects to help the homeless get their story out.

When looking on their website I found this -


Current Vacancies
We are currently only looking for digital media volunteers who have week day availability.
Are you proficient in Photoshop? Do you have a passion for photography?

Are you looking for an interesting client focused role where you can help homeless people develop their photography projects to tell a story about their lives?

If so, then we need your help! Please contact our Volunteer Manager, Lance Kuhn on 020 7925 7893 or email lance.kuhn@cstm.org.uk for more information.




Since finding this I have sent a courtasy email to them with my details, I will be contacting them via phone on Friday.

Hopefull I will be able to get some 'work' with them.

Photojournalism - New Idea

A new idea for the photojournalism side of things was to photograph the homeless comunity around Charing Cross Station.

 

Coming home one night from a late shift I decided to start photographing some of the homeless chaps, get their story and the photograph.

 

A few prelimiary shots came out quite well, and I believe this could deffinatley turn into an interesting project; if executed correctly.

 

When shooting I decied to use quite a high ISO, 1600, in order to purposfully create some photographic 'noise' which I believe adds to the overall 'gritty' nature of the project.

 

 While shooting and hearing his story I noticed his hands and harmonica, which on their own without any other imagery tell a story. Which could end up creating quite a powerful or strong image.

 

While this is only preliminary research work it will be somthing I will be looking into much further, as it ticks my boxes for photojournalism.