3rd place
bronze star award
XINGKUN YANG
united kingdom
title
The invisible: A Project About London Homeless
Homeless is commonplace in London, however, this should not be an excuse for choosing to ignore the issue. This is especially the case currently, with the city being full of unpredictability. Brexit is detrimental to the young people who live in this city and the cutting of public funds also makes the lives of these marginalised people harder. For this project, the aim is to hear their voice, to document their lives and let them speak about their story. I wish that this project could change their current life situation. As I got deeper into the project, I realised that I would not be able to conclude the reasons behind a person being homeless or how these people could better their current situation. They are complicated human beings just like you and me.
I discovered that the lives of the homeless have so much in common with our lives. Looked at in another light, these people are also the ones who have successfully escaped from the cage of modern society. They are the refugees of this city, as well as the ones who truly have their freedom, even though the cost of this freedom is sometimes enormous.
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entry description
This project, named The Invisible, is about London homeless people. There are more than 300,000 homeless people in this country and half of them live in London. I spent more than 3 months and met with more than 30 homeless people for this project. I sat on the street with each of them for hours and hours to interview them and document their life. I ate with them and sometimes slept outside with them. This is certainly a project about homelessness, but it became more about the city of London and its abandoned people.Homeless is commonplace in London, however, this should not be an excuse for choosing to ignore the issue. This is especially the case currently, with the city being full of unpredictability. Brexit is detrimental to the young people who live in this city and the cutting of public funds also makes the lives of these marginalised people harder. For this project, the aim is to hear their voice, to document their lives and let them speak about their story. I wish that this project could change their current life situation. As I got deeper into the project, I realised that I would not be able to conclude the reasons behind a person being homeless or how these people could better their current situation. They are complicated human beings just like you and me.
I discovered that the lives of the homeless have so much in common with our lives. Looked at in another light, these people are also the ones who have successfully escaped from the cage of modern society. They are the refugees of this city, as well as the ones who truly have their freedom, even though the cost of this freedom is sometimes enormous.
about the photographer
I'm a 3-rd year student pursuing BA (Hons) photojournalism and Documentary Photography at London College of Communication.back to gallery