[Leica] photographing the homeless

[len-1 at comcast.net (Leonard Taupier)]

Kyle,

That's a nice portrait. There's a lot of character in that face.  
Can't figure him out.

Thanks for showing.
Len


On Jan 19, 2007, at 11:02 AM, Kyle Cassidy wrote:

> 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
>
>
>
>
>
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