BRAIN STORMING
Research questions:
- How many homeless people are there in the world?
- What country has the biggest number of them?
- How many of them are men?
- How many of them are women?
- How many homeless people are there in NYC?
- Is there any help being provided for them?
- Any charities that support them?
- Death rate?
- Average “income”/donations?
- Survival rate?
- What areas of New York has the most homeless people?
- How many of them have mental health issues?
- How many of them are being supported by the government or the people?
- How do they take care of themselves?
- How did they become homeless?
- How do they survive?
- How do they provide for themselves?
- Any hobbies or activities they take part in to make them happy?
- Would they want to take steps to stop living on the streets?
- Why majority of the people tend to ignore the homeless?
Exhibition purpose statement:
“Pooring rain” is an art exhibition/charity event dedicated to help the community which is in need and to help more fortunate people get up close and personal with the ones they chose to ignore. I was inspired by the silent suffering which is so obvious but unfortunately left unnoticed. I have decided to create a photography exhibition with soundtrack (interviews) for each. I want to give voice to those who have been left unheard and unseen for many years. I am aiming to create 3 big pieces all together + smaller photographs in edition to every big piece.
Key arguments
- What leads people to being homeless
- What can we do to help? Talk about charities and specific major needs
- How to prevent homelessness from becoming more prevalent?
- What can we do prevent homelessness in the future?
- Do we disregard homeless people and treat them as less than human because of their status?
- Is being homeless a choice or an inescapable life circumstance?
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS/STRUCTURE
-Please, introduce yourself (name, age, year of birth, nationality)
-Tell me about your childhood? Were you close to your parents? Any siblings? What about school?
– Best childhood memory?
– How did you end up living on the streets? Was it by choice or life circumstances? TELL ME YOUR STORY (ask no editinal questions unless they person goes quite, allow them to be heard)
– What do you struggle with the most?
– Do you feel safe?
– What made you happy this week?
-How people can help you?
-Do you have any friends/people you can talk to?
FINAL PIECES DESCRIPTION:
3 portraits from waist up (one person each)
Close up pictures of persons hands, eyes, smile, persons belongings
Preferably would like it to be black and white
POORING RAIN
Project Outline:
I have had very humble beginnings. I would wear my brother’s clothes as a kid and sometimes we would have nothing to eat. Fortunately for me, life has worked out for the better. Whenever I see a homeless person, I either give them money or buy food. Regardless of what I am giving them, I am trying to help. I want to go around New York city and take pictures and interview homeless people. I want to document their life; take pictures of their belongings, clothes, their hands and faces, put dots on the map where they have slept before, pretty much document as much as I can so the viewer can get to know them as well as possible. I would want the pictures of the person to be printed out as big as the space will allow me and I would place additional pictures of their belongings etc. around the main picture. The reason why I want to do it is because I want people to get closer to see what is going on, I want to create an intimate experience for both the viewer and the ones who are suffering. The goal for this project is to make people care and appreciate their position in life, so that they can help the ones in need. At the end of the exhibition I would want to put a box for any donations that people are willing to give to the homeless people I have chosen to interact with. I feel like it is so important to help each other and not overlook the ones who are suffering. In New York you see so many homeless people that now it has become a norm to walk past and pretend like you did not see them. I really want to get in depth of this problem and by interviewing the poor, I can give the voice to the ones who stay silent simply because they feel left out and unwanted by the society.
Key Ideas/Outcomes:
- Make society more aware of people in need by creating an intimate experience of getting to know the subjects of the experiment better
- Raise money to help the chosen subjects of the project
- Make the public realize that they should be grateful for their position in life
- Develop my communication/photography skills
Space I plan to use for my project:
MOMA PS1
Work I plan on producing:
- Audio recordings (interview)
- Short video (moving photograph of the persons face)
- Large portraits
- Smaller photographs of the person’s belongings, hands, atributes
How I am planning to present the work:
As you can see, the space above is essentially a box, however it has only 3 walls due to the fact that one “wall” acts as an entrance to the space. I plan on using each wall for each individual I chose to work with as it separates them and creates a more intimate and close experience
This diagram shows the layout I envision for the space. The center piece is the main photograph (3 x 2 meters). Smaller rectangles represent the smaller pictures I would like put around the main picture. The headphone set represent the station where the public can listen to the interview between me and the homeless person.
ESSAY OUTLINE
Research questions:
-
How many homeless people are there in the world?
-
What country has the biggest number of them?
-
How many of them are men?
-
How many of them are women?
-
How many homeless people are there in NYC?
-
Is there any help being provided for them?
-
Any charities that support them?
-
Death rate?
-
Average “income”/donations?
-
Survival rate?
-
What areas of New York has the most homeless people?
-
How many of them have mental health issues?
-
How many of them are being supported by the government or the people?
-
How do they take care of themselves?
-
How did they become homeless?
-
How do they survive?
-
How do they provide for themselves?
-
Any hobbies or activities they take part in to make them happy?
-
Would they want to take steps to stop living on the streets?
-
Why majority of the people tend to ignore the homeless?
Thesis/exhibition purpose statement:
“Pooring rain” is an art exhibition/charity event dedicated to help the community which is in need and to help more fortunate people get up close and personal with the ones they chose to ignore. I was inspired by the silent suffering which is so obvious but unfortunately left unnoticed. I have decided to create a photography exhibition with soundtrack (interviews) for each. I want to give voice to those who have been left unheard and unseen for many years. I am aiming to create 3 big pieces all together + smaller photographs in edition to every big piece.
Detailed outline of key arguments
-
What leads people to being homeless
-
What can we do to help? Talk about charities and specific major needs
-
How to prevent homelessness from becoming more prevalent?
-
What can we do prevent homelessness in the future?
-
Do we disregard homeless people and treat them as less than human because of their status?
-
Is being homeless a choice or an inescapable life circumstance?
RESULTS THIS FAR:
I have made few adjustments, because I realized I was intruding my subjects. I wanted to insure that they would feel as comfortable as I could make them. First adjustment came to the interview questions. I realized that asking 15 question long interview was intense and too fabricated. It would have pushed the authenticity of the project away. I forgot that the goal was to get to know the person and ask how we as a society can help. I have limited myself to 2 “must ask” questions:
- Introduce yourself (name, age, place of birth etc..)
- What can we do to help you and make this easier for you?
After first question I would carefully listen trying to understand their energy and where this is going. I can feel people well, so every person I interviewed would receive question based on the information they told me before.
Another change came when I had to take pictures. I realized that taking close up pictures of their teeth, faces, hands and feet would make them feel uncomfortable as it points out issues with hygiene , simply something that have no access to. Instead I have decided to take one portrait and one full body shots.
