Thinking outside the box

When my friend Javed asked me if I knew how to work iMovie, I enthusiastically told him about the collage project that I had just completed and how it gave me the gist of how most of it works, and that I would be happy to help with what he had to do. His project was for his Discover New York class, the theme- Homelessness. It was not his choice, the professor had assigned it to everyone because it’s a topic she is quite passionate about. I found it odd that someone who feels strongly about the injustices of homelessness would ask a class of college students to wander the city looking to snap shots of homeless people. I think that a homeless person would feel singled out, embarrassed, ashamed, belittled, or all of the above if they were to notice that they were being photographed. I told Javed this and he had no good answer to it, and said he would ask his professor how to deal with this issue.

A few days later the topic of his project came up in conversation again, and he asked if I wanted to see the photos he had taken so far. He told me that his professor had clarified that she did not want photos of actual homeless people, but of things representative or reminiscent of homelessness.

Those are two of the photos he took. I found his approach very interesting because it required him to step back and think of homelessness in a different way. Portraying homelessness without homeless people may seem difficult, but I think these photos are successful in what he wanted to capture and that when joined with the rest, his photoessay will give the same sad feeling as the topic of homelessness.