Untitled - Forgotten Britain

'Forgotten Britain' is a personal project I've been working on for the past few months on homelessness. Walking through City streets of Britain such as London and Slough for example, I'd walk past homeless people whom I met on a journey back home one day. After time their faces would linger in my mind, remembering the moments where passers-by would turn the other way pretending not to see them or often cross the road. Going over to talk to this man was the day that my approach to photography was changed. Stopping to chat, buying someone a meal, sitting with them buying them a cup of tea, brought more of a significant meaning to these photographs.


I want the audience to erase the idea of the stereotypes of the homeless that they are often labelled.
The faces of the people in these images seem to be a part of the black background almost blending in, suggesting that the dark world of homelessness has a hold on them, making it difficult for them to leave. The power of the ‘’Dark side” (Black background) appears to be slowly engulfing these individuals as they reach out for help, from the world of light. However, the light from that world does not shine on them enough to eliminate the dark side completely. The darkness also signifies their addiction disorders, financial crisis, redundancies, unemployment, poverty, crime, relationship breakdown-family disputes, mental illnesses, and domestic violence, lack of affordable housing and evictions. My choice to produce images without colour involves a simple choice between two worlds that are clearly opposite which are represented by Black and White. (i.e. Right & Wrong, Light & Dark, Good & Bad or Good and Evil constituting a two-valued system.)
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