#ItCouldBeMe, A portrait of our community

 

There is an exhibition of work stemming from my time as a Photographer in Residence at SHOC – Slough Homeless Our Concern between December 2015 and September 2016. It is being held at The Curve in Slough up until 26 November for those who want to view it and judge its relevance and worth to homelessness.
I spent time with staff, volunteers and clients; listening to them and their stories and from this tried to meld these impressions into a body of work whose aim was what? I still wrestle with this and question the worth and validity of the end result.
Initially I felt that hitherto the representation of homeless by the image makers and the media tended to be superficial, patronising, and often over simplistic resulting in a transitory, knee jerk frisson of sympathy that is quickly replaced by other pressing matters. So the inevitable question arises: is my work any different?
Spending so much time with both the often-overlooked bit players and the protagonists on the various sides of the issue, I was able to get a feel for what it is like to be on the streets. The question was how to use this.
I wanted to draw out the individuality of each person and show they, like everyone else, have hopes and dreams, loves and hates, strengths and weaknesses. They are people and just like everyone else, they have aspects that are both admirable and distasteful.

I felt that it was also important to show the care and attention that all sorts of people and organisations afforded SHOC and its clients.
So how to present a body of work that reflects all of this complexity? Also to reflect on the effectiveness of the work in terms of breaking through the bubble that surrounds people and sensitise them more realistically to what it means to be homeless.
I was influenced by Richard Alvedon’s use of plain backgrounds in his “In the American West” to produce a set of portraits that force a concentration on the detail of the individual – their pose, clothes and expression. I also used my impression of Anthony Luvera’s assisted self portraits to work with the people, discussing their situations and feelings to agree the site for a location portrait. These two styles of portraits are supplemented with a book that contains a selection of images capturing the goings on at SHOC. Finally there are a series of recorded interviews that are synthesised into a slide show to give a forth component to the work.
It is only when considering all four elements will the viewer get a full impression of my time at SHOC. So I return to the fundamental questions that photographers need to ask: Is my work materially different from other renditions? And does it achieve what I set out to do? It is up to the viewers and I welcome some feedback.
This is one of several recorded interviews with people from the SHOC community – it gives an added dimension to the Residency and paints a picture of homelessness in and around Slough. Listen to Mandy here.
Visit Simon’s website here to find out more about the project.