Introduction

This is an introduction into the final unit of my University course studying the practice of Photography. I have already submitted the first unit of this final year which was titled 'Reflect and Research', this unit was so people could get an idea of what they wanted to photograph in their final project and research into the specified subject.
For this final year I have turned my focus to the 'lack of housing problem' that the public face, in particularly in Manchester. This meant that I documented the growing numbers of homeless people in the street, which is a direct knock on effect of the housing problem, as well as the change in 'Squatter's Rights'. I also documented the amount of derelict/ open land which could be developed on to counter this growing problem. I then went onto contrasting that last point by showing the numerous expensive new builds and developments that were being constructed, to show how there are developments happening but ones that will not improve those that need the help the most.
At the end of my last unit I had decided that I would carry on with my theme of the housing problem but instead of capturing subjects within my images, I would represent them in a still life format. But, when I received feedback about my project I was encouraged to carry on capturing subjects because I was approaching the theme in a very ethical way, and therefore could represent them accurately. This has meant, my project will carry on how I left it, looking at different techniques to represent the housing problem. While looking closely at the suggestions I received through feedback, including the empty interiors of tents, incorporating text and images, and also considering what position I am photographing the subjects from. Lastly I think the empty and derelict land did work for what point I was trying to prove about how there is land out there that could help improve the housing problem, but I think in continuation for my project I want to capture my images to show more of the human side instead of an architectural/landscape look. The reason for this was that my images began to look too removed from the people that are affected from the housing problem, which I want to combat



Final Major Project: Portfolio and Exhibition 

This last units learning outcomes are:

• To manage time properly from initial ideas to the final outcome, while displaying problem solving throughout the project.
• To maximise the development and production of work.
• Capitalise on the ways public displays of art work influence context and meaning, practise skills to convey concepts that engage an audience. 
• Refine and incorporate key photographic skills that are relevant to your practice. 
• Complete contextual, historical and ethical research- to allow ones self to be fully informed on each decision one makes.  

Most of the outcomes are the same as my last unit but I am going to have to think much harder about how different public displays of work influence context and meaning, because this project ends with an exhibition. Furthermore, I want to complete more contextual and historical research into my theme, because I feel my last unit lacked on this type of information, which then should improve my practice because I will be more informed on my decisions. Lastly because this is our final unit, it is marked out of 60 credits which is half our yearly total, which means I will have to end with a very large body of work at the end, which is exhibited in a refined way.

Victorian Homelessness

Fine Art and photography have always turned their visual gaze as a medium to the 'poor' and 'lower' sides to society, but especially during the Victorian era until present day. 

An article I found online details that many people struggled in the 19th century to make a comfortable home for themselves and their families in the Uk, as poverty became an increasingly big problem. What came out of this was many artists beginning to turn their gaze onto representing the poverty through their work. 

The pieces that I am looking at within this post are on display at the 'Geffrye Museum of the Home', and portray the reality oh homelessness for many during the Victorian period. 

'A Recess on a London Bridge' by Augustus Edwin Mulready, 1879

 'Houseless and Hungry' by Luke Fildes, 1869

'The Pinch of Poverty' by Thomas Benjamin Kennington, 1891

Each of the artists have used their own techniques to visualise their ideas on the homeless during that era. Each I believe shows people that are in desperate and depressing times due to their circumstances. But each of the artists were from wealthy and privileged backgrounds, so it could be suggested that none of them could portray their subjects accurately. 

Furthermore their images show that even from the Victorian era, 'wealthy' people have been producing art on 'poor' so it is a well exercised and some would say 'overly' exercised format. 

This is why I must be careful in how I produce my photographs because it has been done so regularly, I have even had people say when they see pictures of homeless people they switch off because their has been so much work produced in this format before. 

This research suggests how I need to find a balance between still including the 'homeless' subject themselves inside the work, without it turning into 'another photograph of a homeless person'. 

Alexey Titarenko

Alexey  Titarenko is a Russian photographer and artist, who was the youngest member of the independent photo club Zerkalo.

In much of his work Titarenko is commenting on the Communist regime as an oppressive system that converts citizens into mere signs. I think this comment is mostly shown through his project the 'City of Shadows', which is arguably his most famous collection of work.
In 'City of Shadows', he wants to show links between the past and present while also commenting on the general living condition of the public within the Soviet Union between 1992-1994. I think these images are very good symbols of showing how Titarenko felt that the Soviet Union didn't have the publics interests in their minds, this is shown through his long exposure images which capture the subject as motion blurs and not a static, 'important', figure. Furthermore I believe the images show how everyone was just trying to get by under the hash conditions of the Soviet Union, due to their being masses of people completing the same journey within the frames. Other images in this series focus on smaller amounts of subjects but they still have the same amounts of blur, meaning no identifiable features are captured, which creates a very illusive and unsettling feeling.

Titarenko's work has really made me think about how I could represent homeless people without actually capturing their faces. If I use Titarenko's techniques of long shutter speeds, it means that I still will be capturing the subject without showing their features and thus safe guarding their privacy. This technique if done well could also represent how they are always moving and never settled due to them not having a home and needing to be on the move all the time, this effect should also be increased if I manage to compose public roads in the background so one will be able to see the blur of the public going past the homeless camps, to represent how they are never static but always left behind.

I think this method should keep my pictures looking original and interesting, instead of looking like just another photograph of a homeless person, which is exactly what I don't want them to look like. And this technique is a good place to start, to get my project rolling again in a different way to how I photographed it before. 

Long Exposure Test Shoot

After looking at Alexey Titarenko's work I have become inspired to try a completely different technique to those I was using at the start of my project on the housing problem. 

Titarenko's technique was to use long exposure times to add large amounts of movement to his pictures, which were meant to represent the Soviet oppression on their public. 

I think this same technique can be used to the same affect when looking at a homeless subject, because they are almost like forgotten people and many people do just believe they are eye saws and nothing else. 

Before going back to either the Piccadilly or Oxford road camp, to start photographing the community of people using this new technique, I wanted to practice it to make sure I would mess it up when it counted. 

To do this I went to a busy place in Manchester town centre and put my camera on a tripod with a wide angle lens attached to it. The reason for the tripod, was so that I wouldn't blur the fore or background and only the people walking passed would look in motion. I also used a wide angle lens because I think this would work well when photographing the homeless communities, because it will allow me to get close to the subjects while still capturing the general camp, which should make the viewer feel very involved within the frame. 

I tried this technique in a few different locations, but this composure gave me the best looking results from my tests. What I wanted to test was how slow of a shutter speed I should set my camera to, to see what amounts of visual information was recorded on the subject and what amounts were just blur. 

I also decided to set the camera to f/22 so I would get the most detail from the fore and background as possible, which I believe Titarenko's images show. 

0.5 seconds 

0.8 seconds

1 second

2.5 seconds

5 seconds

As you can see, from this test the best results are between the exposure time of 0.5-1 second, because you still get a sense of what the subject looks like without actually seeing any defining features, which is the look I want to go for when I try this again at the homeless camps. I think 2.5 and 5 seconds just showed too much movement and not enough detail in the image.

One thing I need to keep in mind is when I do this technique properly is that the amount of blur depends entirely on how much the subject is moving, the less movement the less blur. To counter this I will need to decrease the shutter speed, while keeping the f/stop the same to keep the high levels of focus and detail on the surrounding objects.

Oxford Road Camp Long Exposures

After practising my long exposure techniques I was ready to try them out on the Oxford Road camp and see if these techniques worked well in representing their constant movement, due to not having a home, and also to represent the rest of society moving past them. 

When I arrived at the Oxford road camp which was situated next to the old MMU student union, I realised that the whole camp had completely gone. They had clearly been moved on by the council because their was more fencing up and also the last time I was with the group I saw them being questioned by the police and council. 

This has created a big problem for my project, because the Oxford road camp was the one that I had made the biggest connection too, through Adam, and now means that I need to think of another plan instead of doing this technique. 

I also need to look around their old begging spots, to try and find out where the group has gone after being moved and re-connect with them. 

Change of Idea

While I was thinking of what new angle I could capture now the Oxford Road camp has been evicted, I came across a Guardian article which is about Syria before and after the war.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/26/syria-heritage-in-ruins-before-and-after-pictures

The article was clearly meant to make the audience see clearly how devastating the war has been on Syria and its people. The way they have shown this is relevant to my project, which also looks at cause and affect of displacement of individuals, and shows photographs above and below each other which capture before and after the war.

I think these images quickly represent to the viewer the amount life and community that has been lost between the two images that they are viewing. 

This article and its photographs have reminded me of all the photographs that I have took of the Oxford Road camp community, which could be compared to the same composures after they were kicked out from the camp. I could also document anythings that were left behind from the camp that represents what was once there. 

I think this idea could work well to show how they are always being moved around by the council and can't make a temporary 'home' for themselves for too long before being moved on again. 

Oxford Road Camp Before and After

The way I began this shoot was by taking photographs on my phone of the previous images that I had captured at the Oxford road camp, so that I could make sure the composition of the new images were close to the originals. I found this quite tricky because it had changed quite drastically since the first times I visited the camp due to there now being no tents or people to use as reference points. 

I also decided to do this shoot digitally, using my 35mm lens, which meant that some of the angles were not the same as before. 

After capturing the images I wanted to display the images next to each other on a single page which I did through making a3 photoshop documents and putting the images next to each other. Instead of keeping them the same size I wanted to highlight the importance of the after images which is why I have kept them larger than the originals. The reason for doing this is to leave the viewer with a lasting reminder of the loss of community and homes these people have had due to being moved on again, I think it also heightens the affect of motion that they encounter throughout their 'homeless' lives. 

The portrait images are displayed left and right of each other, where as the landscape are above and below. This is because they fit better on a page when done using this format, so it maximises the image size capabilities. But I think if I were to display these images for an exhibition or book I would keep the images separate and display them at different sizes, instead of being on the same page.  

I think this image worked well because I have managed to compose the tree and the fence in the same position which means its easy for the viewer to compare the before and after. I think the fact that the after image is than the before is interesting because it means that you are left thinking about the after image more, which results in one thinking about the blank empty space. 

Again like before, I have managed to compose the image well to mean that the before and after images are very similar. I think this comparison is interesting to look at, because some people will say that the homeless tents is an eye sore, but I think the empty/ derelict land looks more depressing than the homeless tents.

Because my before image was a strange angle, and is blurred I found it tricky to match the composition for the after image, which is why I don't think this comparison works too well. 

I don't think this comparison between the before and images works too well either, before for different reasons than the images above. Because in the first image, you can only really see the subject and none of the background, it meant I had hardly any reference points to go off, which means the before image could've been captured anywhere, and there isn't much connection between the two images visually. 

This was one of my most affective comparisons, because again I feel like I have got the composition nearly identical to the before. And the dull and cold after image gives you a lasting depressive feeling compared with the warm before image which has human aspects in it.  

This image was tricky to compare because the subject was so close to the camera for the before image, but I think I have managed to get them quite similar in look. Because the focal range/ depth is completely different between the two images I don't feel its worked very well. 

These images didn't work that well either, because I was comparing a medium format before image with a 35mm digital after image. Even though the format of the images don't look similar, I feel the point I'm trying to prove about the before images looking more friendly is still there. 

I was happy with how close these two images were from each other, even though I was using the different formats. Again this was a good example of how he before image looked  a lot more happy and welcoming than the after image. 

The leading line in the building which draws the viewers eye into the middle of the picture works well here, because it gave me a good reference point to work from. Even though the subjects are drinking on the road, I still feel that the view looks better than the empty and cold city building. 

I think these images do work well to show the ideas of movement that I wanted to achieve, although some work better than others due to getting the composition and angle similar to the before photograph. I think my presentation technique works well for the viewer to quickly compare both images while remembering the present image more than the past.

I think the removal of life and energy when comparing the before and after pictures is really strong, because the viewer is left looking at very bleak and boring images which are completely lifeless. This is exactly the effect that I wanted to show through the comparison of the two sets of images which were taken just months apart. I feel the sets of images show how they try to make a 'home' for themselves but are quickly forced to move on and start over, this constant movement will mean that then can't ever fully settle down in one area they can call 'home'.

After photographing the 'after' compositions to go next to the 'before', I went round the deserted camp to photograph any signs of life that had been left by the homeless people.

The only objects and signs of life that were left were old bits of string which was used to hold the tents up and also socks that had been left drying on the fences.
I think this set of images creates different feelings compared to the before and after shots because the viewer has nothing to reference what was there before. But I feel that these images do still tell an important part of the life of a homeless person, which shows how they are always on the move and when they are made to move on they usually leave belongings behind because everything is being carried on their back.
I think the cut pieces of string can also represent how the people are not tied down, but also cut free from society which gives them no stability to try and form a life away from homelessness.

I think this shoot helped me a lot in my project, because its the first time that I have realised how quickly homeless people can get moved on by the council and police. This has highlighted to me the importance of showing this amount of movement throughout my images so I can represent it properly.

What I need to do next is find where the people from the camp have gone to, to see if I'm right about the council moving them on and also where and how they are trying to live at the moment.

Jacob August Riis

Jacob Riis was a Danish-American social reformer, journalist and social documentary photographer. He is most known for using his photographic and journalistic talents to help the impoverished in New York City. While working as a police reporter Riis experienced the poverty that hadn't been uncovered in New York, and through his work tried to alleviate these bad conditions by exposing the poor quality of life that some people were living in.
He is also regarded as a pioneer photographer, due to him using a lot of early flash work within his practice.

In 1889 Riis wrote a magazine article for Scribner's, which talked about the poor living conditions in some areas of New York, with his images placed next to the article for added information. The city's rich newspaper owners tried to exclude the article due to its disturbing content, but it soon increased in popularity. Riis decided to expand the content, and make it into a book called 'How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York. The New York Times praised it, calling it a "powerful book". His photographs were in a photojournalistic style which he used to hopefully shock the wealthy New Yorker's into taking better care of those who have very little, he had to do this through photographs along side text because he realised that text alone wasn't creating his desired shock effect.
Whats interesting of Riis' writing is that it wasn't written with a common use of being objective, but he writes harshly of the Italians, Irish, Jews and Chinese, but apart from those judgments he did write the book in a sympathetic way, to try and call for social reform.

What I really like about Riis' work, is that he shows the viewer exactly what the living conditions are like for the poorest people living in New York City. He does this in an almost mechanical looking technique, where he just points the camera in the room or the street, at about waist height, and captures whats in front of him. It means that his photographs have a very realistic feel to them, because there isn't any creative angles used which might make the photograph feel of something else than whats its trying to show. You get the feeling that Riis is trying to show the viewer exactly what he see's in front of his own eyes, which leaves it up to the viewer to think what ever they want to think about the images.
I think this way of working is very simple, but also really effective when trying to show viewers in an informative manner what the living conditions of these people are like. Riis' technique of going into his subjects homes makes the viewer feel very included in their lives which allows the photographs to have a greater impact and thus more effective in educating what their lives are really like. I think in his photographs of living areas the subjects he captures within the frame add an extra amount of information but are not entirely needed because the room itself would speak for their living conditions.

I think 'How the other half live', has been very motivating to me in my project because its shown me to get even closer to the people I am photographing and try to show the viewer exactly how homeless are living. One idea I could follow would be to document the different type of ways homeless people are living, such as in squats, tents and hostels, in an intimate way.
Looking back over Riis' images, whats nice about them is that everything is in focus within the image so the viewer can study every little detail in the image. This reminds me of my images that I took using my wide angle lens and long exposures at f/22. Maybe I could use this technique to make sure everything in my image is in focus.

Meeting Aaron Again + Shoot

After looking at 'How the other half live' by Jacob Riis, I decided to go back into Manchester city centre with my camera and tripod to see if I could document how homeless people in Manchester were living.

When walking under a bridge on the Oxford Road I saw Aaron, who I had previously photographed at the Oxford Road camp before they'd been kicked out, who was sat begging under the bridge. After speaking to him for a while it turns out that over the month of December he had been sent back to prison due to missing is parole date which he had to attend every week. This was quite interesting because he said that the prison system didn't try to get him into housing but they insisted that he had to see his parole officer every week, even when he's sleeping rough on the streets with no way to tell the time. 

After leaving prison after a month, he's back to sleeping rough on the streets again but seen as the Oxford road camp has been evicted, he's having to sleep in a two man tent by the side of the road next to the nearest bridge to the Oxford Road train station. 

I took this opportunity to start my new idea which was influenced by Jacob Riis' photographs to document how different homeless people were living, using my wide angle lens on a tripod, while my camera is set to f/22 to make sure nearly everything is in focus. I first tried this technique when looking into the work of Alexey Titarenko, which I did a practice shoot to test the new technique. So with Aaron's permission I started photographing the tent that he was living in at the moment. 

 I have shown my favourite images from this shoot which represent the ideas that I am trying to portray.

I think the tones of these images are really moody due to having a dark blue cast over the inside of the tent. The problem with this image is that I tried to focus too much on the front of the tent and the image doesn't show the back enough which means without explanation the viewer wouldn't be able to tell exactly what they were looking at.  

This image definitely works better in showing the viewer more of the inside of the tent, so they can see exactly what conditions Aaron is living in, including old fags ends, an old sleeping bag and a few possessions.   

For this image I tilted the tripod downwards so that the composition included more of the bottom of the tent and less of the top. I think in some regards I prefer this image because it gives the viewer more visual information to look at such as the empty sandwich wrappers, but I feel they don't get a full sense of the space or lack of space due to this cramped composition. 

This photo I believe gives the viewer a stronger feeling of what it might be like to live in this tent, because composition makes you feel like your enclosed within the tent instead of on the outside looking in. This is the sort of effect that I wanted to show through this set of images, although I wish that there was more visual information in the form of objects that the viewer could focus on over time. But I think the lack of objects in the tent and the bleak blue colour makes this image look lonely and cold. 

From this shoot I have learnt that the best composition to use is one that shows both the top half of the tent and bottom half evenly, while making sure that the camera is inside the tent to that the viewer feels like they are enclosed within the space. This should make them feel like they are directly inside this tent 'home' and experiencing what it may be like to live inside something so small. What I really like about these images is the blue lighting which casts a cold and lonely light over Aaron's belongings, this works well in explaining what it might feel like to live inside a tent. Aaron said that he cant keep many belongings inside the tent because people will try to steal anything valuable inside the tent while he's out. 

After this shoot, I know that the techniques I used to take these photographs do work. The tripod is necessary because the tents are very dark inside, and also with the camera set to f/22 it means that hardly any light gets into the lens which together means that I need long exposures to expose the images correctly. I also set my ISO to 100, which is as low as possible so it means these images have very little noise or blur and as much detail as possible. 

I am definitely going to carry on this technique throughout my project, because it works very well to put the viewer inside some homeless peoples lives.  

Project Problems

I organised with Aaron that I would meet him again the following day after capturing the images of his tent, but after two days of looking for him at the same spot and others in town, I couldn't find him. 

This meant that I had to think of a new 'in' to photographing how the homeless of Manchester were living day to day, to connect to Riis' 'how the other half lives'. 

One day, while I was out looking for some of the old faces that I knew from photographing the Oxford Road camp before Christmas, I spotted Joanne who I had previously photographed. While speaking to her, she told me that Jaro 'Jaroslaw Edward Bochenek' who was the harmonica player that I photographed and recorded playing before christmas had passed away in his sleep on her friends sofa. She said that they were putting a small funeral together for him and to send her the photo's and recording that I had taken so it could be played at his funeral. 

As you can see below, I found Joanne on Facebook and sent her the pictures and recording, although she has yet to reply. 

After we finished talking about Jaro, I began asking her where she was staying now and what had happened to the other people who used to live at the Oxford Road camp. She was now staying at her sisters house, she hadn't heard from Aaron, and said that the others were now staying in a new camp under a bridge near some of the University of Manchester buildings. We then organised that the next day she would take me to where this new camp was so that I could begin photographing their tents in the new technique that I was practising, and also she would take me too the house that Jaro died in, which would've been perfect because I could carry on my work which focuses on how homeless people are always on the move and are never in one place long enough to call it 'home' before being moved on again. 

Unfortunately the next day came and Joanne was know where to be seen, this meant that again I had another set back in my project which I had to overcome. This one was particularly annoying because I knew that if Joanne had been there, the shoot that I would've been able to do would have been really interesting for my project. Sadly, the problem with my project is that it naturally has a lot of set backs because to gain access to peoples temporary 'homes' and their hidden lives means you need to gain a lot of trust and then at the last moment there is always a lot of different variables that can let you down. 

I hope that with me being persistent, one day soon I will come across people that I have previously met to capture where they are living now. If that doesn't work, I'm going to have to find a new approach to my project. 

The Sock Exchange Closure and Homeless Man Murder

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jan/28/gary-neville-praised-but-homeless-leave-footballers-hotel-for-uncertain-future

Throughout the duration of my project 'The Sock Exchange' has been a major focus within the news. As previously explained in the first part (unit) to my project, it was an old stock exchange building in Manchester owned by Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs. While they were renovating the building to become a luxury hotel squatters managed to force entry and start living in the building, but instead of kicking them out they told them they could stay for the coldest months of the winter. This received huge amounts of press, and event though I tried I wasn't able to gain entry to photograph the project. 

Among nearly all of the homeless news in Manchester, this was one of the most positive stories that has been circulating. 

But unfortunately the hotel for the homeless is now closed, as they need to start the renovation again to keep the project on track. This means that all the people who were in the hotel will most probably be back onto the streets, even though they have had a team in the stock exchange who were working on housing all the inhabitants. It has been estimated that Neville spent £150,000 to run the hotel for the homeless over the few winter months that it was open. This figure showcases the expense that has to be spent just to provide people with short-term housing, and supports my projects aims to increase the amount of support they receive. 

Even though this was such a positive story, it was only for a very temporary time which supports my on going theory about homeless people not having anywhere to sleep long enough to become calling it 'home'. This also coincides with the points that they need a postcode before being able to work and get back into the community. This is being done through hostels and the like, but there is a long waiting list to be long term housed in this type of accommodation and usually the people with most problems are housed and need the support first. This leaves much of the young and 'fit' population of homeless people being left to defend themselves, and why the camps that are popping up around Manchester are actually a good place for them to live while they are waiting to be re-housed. The reason for this, is that it provides them with a small community that they are part of, which should mean they look out for one another making it a lot safer. But even this is difficult to predict and living in tents can still be very dangerous for homeless people. 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/manchester-homeless-man-murder-two-arrested-over-body-found-on-fire-in-tent-salford-a6830751.html

The article above describes the murder of Daniel Smith, a homeless man living in a tent in Manchester. The headline caught my attention as it instantly made me think about all the different people that I have already met through my project and hoped that it wasn't anyone that I knew. 

The police believe that Daniel was attacked before being set alight inside his own tent under a bridge in Salford. This sort if horrific tragedy really shows the vulnerability of the people who have to live their lives like this and the amount of anxiety for their own safety they must feel on day to day bases. 

  

These two articles I have discussed show that when someone makes one step forward in helping the housing problem for homeless people in Manchester, it can only go so far, before they are back fighting to defend themselves from certain dangers that the second article showcases. 

Andy Palfreyman

Andy Palfreyman was homeless and living in London for more than 30 years, and through the help and guidance of the Swiss Church in Covent Garden managed to turn his life around and get a part time job as a receptionist.
Palfreyman became homeless after leaving his family home as a teenager to travel around Europe for three years, and when he returned his parents kicked him out the house due to him not living up to their expectations. He comments in an interview that when he first moved to London he didn't sleep for three days straight because he was too scared, and had to sleep with one eye open most nights.
After 30 years on the streets of London Palfreyman has put on a photographic exhibition of all the places that he used to sleep in with brief descriptions of each place. He titled his exhibition 'Cardboard and Caviar'.

He borrowed his friends camera and went about photographing each of his favourite rough sleeping spots. The images are very lifeless, this is because of basic angles that he used and also the subject being of un-interesting shapes. What really brings these images to life is the brief description he has made under each one, because one gets a sense of his personality and what it might actually be like to spend a night in the spot photographed.

What I like about his photographs is the straight-on angles he's captured the different scenes at, which gives the viewer a sense that they are seeing it exactly how it is, without any subjective angles. I think this sort of technique is one that I should try to carry on within my project, which should hopefully show the viewer exactly how certain homeless people in Manchester live.

Another technique which is interesting in his work and ties back one of my previous techniques, is the idea of time and movement in the images. Because when viewing his work, you naturally add him into the scene after reading the description, which for me actually brightened up the end picture from quite a cold concrete look into one with more life captured in it. This is something that I touched upon previously in this unit when I found out that the Oxford Road Camp had been moved, which allowed me to produce before and after images which showed the amount of life that had been lost from the scene after the council moved the homeless people on.
I think the idea of movement and time, is one that I should definitely carry on with, while also trying to capture the images in the same objective technique that Palfreyman has shown in his images.

Charles Street Camp

After nearly another week of trying to find someone from the evicted Oxford Road Camp that I photographed for my last unit, I finally found a few of the polish group who told me that they were now staying under a bridge a bit further into town. This turned out to be the same camp that Joanne was going to take me to but I haven' seen her since she said that.

I have shown where this small new camp is situated on the map below, which is indicated with a small green marker. As you can see the homeless group only moved a bit down the Oxford from where they used to stay on Sidney Street next to the old Manchester Metropolitan University student union, and now have set up a temporary camp under a railway bridge on Charles Street. 

It was very lucky that I saw them begging in one of their old spots under the Oxford road bridge nearest MMU University, because I was about to begin looking at the different angles my project could follow, while still focusing on the housing problem. 

After catching up with them for a while, they allowed me to photograph the inside of their tents. 

While carrying out this shoot I made sure that I used the same techniques that I had practised when photographing Aarons tent, and also incorporate the inspiration that I had gained from looking into the images and idea's of Andy Palfreyman. I carried on using a wide angle lens which allowed me to capture the complete interior of the tent, and put my camera on a tripod so I could set my f/stop as high as possible meaning my depth of focus was very large. Using a large depth of focus works well to coincide with the work of Jacob Riis, because it allows everything in the image to remain in focus which means the viewer can see it all. As well as using a large f/stop number, I set my ISO as low as possible (100), to make sure that my image isn't grainy and of the sharpest of qualities. The tripod is necessary due to using a large f/stop number and small ISO, and the fact that i'm shooting inside dark tents, it allows me to use very slow shutter speeds to capture the right amount of exposure. 

Below are my favourite images from this shoot. 

I think the colours and tones in this image make it look colourful and full of life which contrasts the reality of what I'm photographing, due to it being a very difficult time for people who find themselves to be homeless. I think this tent shows the viewer that homeless people do try to make their lifestyle as clean and tidy as possible while living in their tent. As you can see everything is in focus which allows the viewer to study each part of her tent, giving them a full understanding of how this homeless person lives. 

I think I prefer this image to the one above because it represents all the same feelings and emotions as the one above, but I have composed the shot from further back which means you can see the top and bottom of the tent which gives one a sense of scale. I think allowing the viewer to see the scale of the tent will show them the tiny amount of room they have for themselves to try and live in and keep clean. You can also see what little possessions they have, which could suggest how empty their life is. Although even though the emptiness can suggest certain ideas to the viewer about loneliness ect, I think tents with more objects in them are more interesting to the eye.  

I really like the different colours and shades in this image because it catches your eye. Also when you look closer, you can see that the tent has been repaired on the right hand side which suggests too the viewer how that the inhabitant of this tent is trying to make do with what they've got. Unlike the image before this, the tent is full of different bags which shows how homeless people always need to be ready to pack up everything and move on if the council force them too, like what happened at their last camp. 

I think this image is better than the one above, because again I have composed the image from further away which gives the viewer a sense of how small the tent is. Also this image is more in focus than the last, because the wind has stopped blowing which means you can see a message has been written on the side of the tent, which I think adds more character to this tent. 

Unlike the two tents before this one, this looks a lot more dark and dirty which completely changes the feel of the image. The lack of colour and cleanliness, shows the conditions of how other homeless people live. This image highlights a very large problem too the viewer, which is how the keep their clothing and bedding clean, which would increase the overall quality of life if they were able to do so. This tent looks like it has been used longer than the other two, and is starting to fall apart. The crisps that you can see by the side of the bed adds more elements of life to the image, and reminds the viewer that some live everyday like this. 

This tent didn't work as well as the others because it was a lot smaller, which meant the roof of the tent is a lot lower than the others I've photographed. This means that the viewer can't see the scale of the interior of the tent, but I have still captured certain objects which are interesting to look at including the gloves, bags and Bart Simpson duvet. This has shown me that if I were to carry on with this idea, it would look even more impressive if I were able to photograph much bigger tents than those I have already captured. 

This image is very different from those shot inside the tents, even though it uses the exact same technique in terms of camera settings and lenses used. This make-shift bed was put next to all the other tents under the bridge, and you can see that someone has used it to rest on at some point. The fencing makes sure that the mattress isn't on the floor to reduce damp, but it must hard nights sleep.  

Paul, photographed above is someone that I hadn't met before, but who was now staying with the Polish group who I had previously met at the old Oxford Road camp. I captured his portrait because he was more than willing to have it captured while he told me about his story. I used my 35mm lens to capture the portrait, instead of using the same wide angle lens that I had been for the tent interiors. The reason for this being it gives a more straight on look to the image, without distorting shapes and sizes which the wide angle can do.  

I prefer this image compared to the one above because it includes more references to the way Paul is living. This is because you can see a tent and tent poles in the background, and because tent is set up in an urban environment the viewer will be able to work out he's living there and not just on holiday. While speaking to Paul he told me how he had been part of a homeless documentary in Swansea called 'Living on the Streets' and how he would like to get in contact with the producer to tell him how he was getting on. I told him that I would try to contact the producer and come back to this camp after I had. 

I really think the tent interiors work well to show the viewer how these certain homeless people are actually spending each night, which is something they probably haven't ever seen before. Composing my images in a certain way means that all one can see is the inside of the tent, and you begin to forgot that people are actually living in the tent full time, which I think is an interesting effect. I think the different colours and shades that the images show create feelings of life which brings positive feelings to a negative situation. I think the fact you can see the wear and tear on the tents also highlights to the viewer how long they have spent in these tents and that they have to make the best out of what they have. Speaking to the group, they told me that most of their belongings including tents and sleeping bags are donated through charities.