Hidden from others
Together, yet alone | Photo essay from my upcoming project about five homeless men who living in the forest together
I passed them by many times. People with similar fates who had found each other, offering each other safety in a forest. I gave one of them a cigarette. I think it started with that. They let me in so I could document their everyday life.
One day I brought them a little surprise. I printed out a couple of photos taken earlier. They were as happy with the pictures taken of them as a child.
It was a fantastic feeling for me too. Such small joys are worth taking photos for. Not to mention that we can talk about their innermost secrets as if we’d known each other for a long time. It doesn’t matter if they live in the forest or in a real apartment. If there is no openness to good in the soul, it does not matter whether a person has an apartment or not.
The outsider sees only filth and terrible misery, but as a photographer, I’m supposed to show what we are afraid to see and don't want to notice - the shadowy but intimate side of life.
Almost everyone turns their eyes away and ignores them, which may even be simple psychological self-defense.
In the future I want to introduce them through more photos and really deep interviews.
What a great story! Humanising everyone and ndependently of our own biases and fears is always an act of kindness not just with them but with our shared human condition. Will be searching for more stories from you on the forests dwellers!
I, too, have difficulty looking at difficult lives. I cannot even take photographs of them. I can't point my camera at them. But you've found a connection point in giving cigarettes. I think you continued with this feeling. An important point. The photos are beautiful along with the story.