Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/01/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]That's the cleanest drunk I've ever seen. Philly must be rolling with clean homeless folks. They probably even have their own release forms. We used to have "Cornbread" in Jackson Square. He always slept there at night on weekends since he knew NOPD would take him in for being drunk in a National Park. "Breakfast is always at 7am" he used to say. I once bought him a bottle of Vodka and watched him devour it like water. On weekday mornings I'd see him on the streets and always said "how's it going Cornbread?" "Cornbread's got a hangover" was the usual reply. I know there's some photos of him somewhere in my stack of gelatins. Chris ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kyle Cassidy" Subject: [Leica] photographing the homeless > It's a strict violation of the 10 Commandments of Plug Photography to > photograph the homeless, because it's such a cheap shot at making a > shortcut to meaning. It allows us to appear socially conscious while > keeping 50 milimieters of distance between a wrecked human life and our > own. Maybe I should change that rule to "Don't photograph the homeless > with anything wide than a 15mm". If you're going to do it, you should > have your face up in it. > > Omar's a real conundrum. He's live in my neighborhood for years, in the > summer sleeping on the steps of the coffee house and in the winter > sometimes on the porches or garages of neighbors. He's friendly and even > charming during the day but he's a heavy drinker and a mean drunk and > one by one, people's patience wears out and businesses start adopting a > "no omar" policy. He's banned from the coffee shop and most of the > places he used to hang out, most of the bars won't let him in, but > there's still something fascinating about him. Like many successful > panhandlers he's endearing in short doses. I've been photographing him > in passing for maybe five years. > > I saw him last week and said "Omar, you look like a freaking GQ model." > "I don't have much," he said. "You know, I don't have anything, but it's > important to look nice." > > http://www.asc.upenn.edu/usr/cassidy/pix/paw/2007/3/1.jpg > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information