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Lee Jeffries' Portraits Of Homeless Men And Women Are Absolutely Haunting (PHOTOS) (Original Post) Whoa_Nelly Jul 2013 OP
those eyes! Tuesday Afternoon Jul 2013 #1
W.O.W thanks for posting this!... Locut0s Jul 2013 #2
More of his work... Locut0s Jul 2013 #3
K&R Solly Mack Jul 2013 #4
For the most part I like his work Stevenmarc Jul 2013 #5
I tend to agree with you on the over-processing. Blue_In_AK Jul 2013 #7
I like Mishler's work Stevenmarc Jul 2013 #8
Another excellent photographer along this vein Blue_In_AK Jul 2013 #6
He's been on my Flickr contacts list for some time justiceischeap Jul 2013 #9

Locut0s

(6,154 posts)
2. W.O.W thanks for posting this!...
Sat Jul 13, 2013, 09:08 PM
Jul 2013

I absolutely love his work! Such feeling and character, not to mention suffering, in those shots! So much detail! I've thought of doing something similar myself in the past. Go down to skid row and take pictures there, I'd pay some of the homeless to get shots of them. But I worry that (1) I'd be an ass hole for doing so as someone coming from the suburbs and (2) my safety might be at risk.

Stevenmarc

(4,483 posts)
5. For the most part I like his work
Sun Jul 14, 2013, 06:17 PM
Jul 2013

I just have rather strong opinions about photographing the homeless, a lot get it wrong, thankfully he got it right.

I've seen a lot of photographers attempt to shoot the homeless, at least 90% are rubbish at it for various reasons.

First if you shoot with a telephoto you're rubbish at it, it's not nature photography it's documentary/environmental portraiture.

Second unless you are going to invest time to interact on a personal level with the homeless the work at best comes off self indulgent, at worst, opportunistic, you'll never really be able to capture one bit of humanity in the subject unless you interact with the subject to some degree.

Third and by far the worst shot is the sleeping homeless shot, it's invasive and cowardly. While the term is homeless the fact is that the street is their home and their space needs to be respected, I see no difference in walking by a bedroom window and taking a shot of someone sleeping and a person sleeping in the street.

Fortunately Lee's work obviously doesn't suffer from any of these, and when I look past the heavy handed post processing I find the photos capture the humanity of the subject. However, it's that heavy handed post processing that I find distracting, it's like the new homeless, now with 25% more cragginess. Sorry but Migrant Mother didn't need a gimmick to become the iconic image that it is and neither do these photos.

Blue_In_AK

(46,436 posts)
7. I tend to agree with you on the over-processing.
Sun Jul 14, 2013, 07:52 PM
Jul 2013

These photos are definitely dramatic, but to me seem a bit exploitive. I think personally I prefer Clark Mishler's realism (see link below), but that's just me.

Stevenmarc

(4,483 posts)
8. I like Mishler's work
Sun Jul 14, 2013, 09:45 PM
Jul 2013

But you hit on an issue that can plague a photographer who works with the homeless, crossing the exploitive line. I don't think Lee has done that but that's the problem with the post processing, it blurs that line a bit but I see it more of a style choice than exploitive.

One photographer that has been accused of being exploitive is Shelby Lee Adams, there is a rather good documentary of this work and I don't see him being all that exploitive but more that people were not all that thrilled that the subject came to light.

http://shelby-lee-adams-napier.blogspot.com/2007/02/blog-post.html?m=1

The doc

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0334548/?mode=desktop

Blue_In_AK

(46,436 posts)
6. Another excellent photographer along this vein
Sun Jul 14, 2013, 07:46 PM
Jul 2013

is Clark James Mishler in Alaska. http://clarkjamesmishler.com/2011/10/14/homeless-in-alaska/


Ed. While there, check his archives. He is definitely one of my favorite people photographers.

justiceischeap

(14,040 posts)
9. He's been on my Flickr contacts list for some time
Mon Jul 15, 2013, 09:40 AM
Jul 2013

He doesn't exploit these folks, he connects with them as much as he can as he takes their portraits. He, if you read the article, doesn't make a dime off these prints. All money goes to homeless charities. Any prizes he wins from the result of his homeless photos, goes to homeless charities.

You may not like the post-processing but this guy is the real deal.

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