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Published: 2011-12-23 12:40:07 +0000 UTC; Views: 13720; Favourites: 948; Downloads: 153
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vancouver 2011leica m2
zeiss c-biogon 35mm f2.8
kodak tri-x 400 in d96
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Comments: 103
I think there is a lot of truth in what you are saying. But I also feel that many people including yourself fail to see the major flaws with these programs and shelters you have mentioned.
While these shelters and programs can help people to get on their feet, to have a place to stay and shower it does not provide safety. Many women are raped in shelters, also men and women are beaten tormented and anything they bring with them is almost always stolen. I have had homeless women on the streets tell me they didn't want my bracelet that i offered to them because it would just be stolen. Sometimes taken right off of peoples bodies while they sleep. I have spoken to people who were raped repeatedly. One person i spoke to had a pet cat who was murdered in the shelter by another individual.
Not only are there serious issues with safety in these establishments but they severely impact peoples freedoms and privacy. Most often you must be in doors by 9-10 pm and then the doors lock and you are not allowed to leave until morning. Here you are stuck with other people who may or may not respect you, you are told what to do where you can go and you don't feel safe. All that these shelters really offer is a place to sleep and shower and food to eat. Which is still a big deal but when weighing these commodities against the circumstances of what you may go through its a tough choice. Simply being given a meal to eat or a bed to sleep in doesn't help the major problem which is that these people need jobs and/or government subsidized housing. Quite often homeless individuals have undergone abuse and neglect in their life and may have substance abuse issues. They need more guidance and support than most shelters and programs can offer.
Unless a shelter is a long term solution where a individual or family is allowed to stay for months on end while being guided and watched by social workers and volunteers i fail to see what a shelter really offers and so do many homeless people. But to get into these long term shelters there are waiting lists that are months long.
Finally, the people you see on the street with signs such as this only make up a small number of homeless people. The homeless people i worked with were families with children. Often the mother and father were still together, at least one of the parents had a full time job. But the money just wasnt enough to stay afloat. Many times they are in debt, or have some other serious issue in their life that makes it harder to stay on top of things like bills, housing , daycare ect. But it is my personal belief that about 70% of homeless individuals are not recognizably homeless. It was only after i began to work in the shelter that i started to notice some of the tenants walking around downtown with their children. I had seen these people before and so have you. Many people choose to remain as private as possible for social reasons. No one wants people to look at them like they are unable to care for their child or support their family. I think everyone should volunteer in a shelter so that they can learn who homeless people really are. They are people just like us.
The wasted guy sleeping in trash in the gutter is a really sad story and he still deserves compassion and guidance, but i would hope that this man doesn't portray the face of homelessness. Because homeless people are mothers and fathers, are children and babies,have jobs, are abandoned teens, are victims of sexual and physical abuse, have mental illness, have substance abuse problems, are veterans, are sick and dying, are battered women or are families or individuals that just couldn't make ends meet. There are many faces of homelessness. This is just one of them.
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This is such a brilliant and true comment.
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That's so sad, but true.
This is a nice shot.
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you need love, fortitude to avoid vice, multitasking skills to keep your family, friends and jobs, etc.
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is this staged or is it a real person sleeping on the street?
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if I had staged this, there would be busty women, smoke and a laser show going on. seriously though, just look at my body of work and what I do.
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great photo,!!!love is the answer but what is the solution to this problem..action!!!it speaks louder than words!!great job !!!
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He has something more. Freedom.
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Love is a verb. I love how this picture emphasizes that, even if you say you love humanity, if you see a human hurting, and then do nothing, you prove yourself to be a hypocrite.
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well, thatΒ΄s what i think when i see those pictures of starving africans. :/ little bit of "poorism" happening.
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What exactly is so funny about this?
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I remember listening to the Beatles, "All you need is love", thinking it was a bunch of nonsense. This picture proves it!
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Theres people who live on the street like this, just wanting some respect and love from persons and care. If you can't see this you are cold-blooded.
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I think he saw the picture the same way as I did: Love alone may or may not help this man survive. But, assuming he is starving, food will.
Some may interpret the food in his hat as a manifestation of love, and others may say "The food is just food, not love!", and I'm sure there are many more reasonable arguments. Every interpretation I can think of is dependent on what the definition of love is.
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Wow.
May you never find love.
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Well, I see I won't receive any from you. I have more than enough, and I see you're in need of some, so I hope this will suffice!
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Here-for-the-ponies has it spot on. How can people think love is all you need when there are starving people who need food?
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Because of someone truly loved the guy, they would GIVE him food. Charity IS love.
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Both interpretations are so correct, because this picture has so much ambiguity to it. Makeshifthelmet, love may have inspired someone to give that man food, and at the same time, someone may have just given it to him out of pity. Love is tough to define, because it's meaning is different to everyone.
One last piece of advice: I wouldn't try to turn this into a heated argument, because no one will "win". That, and, how utterly ridiculous would it be to spread hate or anger (or even some uncomfortable tension) in a picture about love?
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As far as I can tell there was no heat involved in this discussion (I wouldn't even call my post part of the "debate", just adding a thought). 
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The way that one guy said "may you never find love." made me the slightest bit cautious. It was more of just a precaution for you guys
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Thanks. 
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this is what ppl need to see.. no one cares for anyone this is the symbol of truth, an outlining the real problem.. well done with this picture the black an white effect was good to use
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I'm deeply moved. 
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This has been a longtime fav of mine.
Congrats, man!
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Finally, the simplistic and hollow "money can't buy happiness" sentiment gets a proper response. Powerful, must-fave photo.
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It seems someone knows nothing about the hierarchy of needs. The poor man certainly does.
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However, if somebody would give some love to this guy by giving him some food or shelter the phrase still applies.
I have come to the idea that people living in the street are people who have no one who cares for them. I could not get to that point simply because my family and friends would look for me and do the needful to put me back on track.
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The statement is very loud and clear. All (!) you need is love, which is very romantic but small talk as you cannot eliminate hunger or any other challange merely with love. I do feel great compassion for each poor soul who suffers from hunger or otherwise but my love does not help in anyway because I don't have the means to help. Shortly, one could give him love but may not necessarily be able to provide him with food and shelter in the absence of abundant resources, which is the case for the majority of people in the world.
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I disagree and I still believe the statement is conveying the idea that yes ALL you need is love is true regardless of your cinism. And I don't get why get so upset by somebody just sharing their own thought on this issue. Neither small talk nor photos will eliminate hunger I agree with you on this.
However, what I'm saying is that if you really loved that guy you would take him to your house and give him food. You may feel pity or compassion but not love. I'm not being judgmental cause I don't do this either. I don't love all people, it's really hard to do that. For the real thing you need to be a saint.
Now, getting back from my digression to some possibly practical thinking. Let's we all agree things are not working out right and we have lost the meaning of community. Of loving each other in a local environment. There would never be a homeless person in a community were they all care for each other. Homeless people is a modern issue. In the past you had people who would wander and live from the nature or other people offerings. And I don't mean that people in the past were all cool and loving but there was sense of community. Something we should get back and re-elaborated in our present time.
If you take Love as the standing point from where to build relationships there is fundamental change. If we care for each other there is no need to be greedy. There would not be millionaires who hoard stuff because they would share with those that need it. Why? Because they love them. The problem with this world is that there is not enough LOVE and WISDOM. So yeah, if the phrase had the WISDOM added I think it would be almost perfect.
Of course we should have a coffee chat at least to get to some interesting points here. I'm sure you must have many interesting ideas we could elaborate on. Don't get upset about a different point of view. Try to thing what makes YOU upset from what I said and I'm positive you will learn something. I did learn something today about me thanks to your reply so hey it's a win win situation if you take the right angle.
Cheers mate
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You do have some great points, thanks for that, and let me remind you that I did not mean to offend you nor was I upset with you. My anger is towards the indifference and selfishness of mankind - which you critized very well above - as well as towards the false belief that sharing kind words would make a difference. It does not. Action does.
There is no doubt that art is a potent media in invoking feelings in people but driving them to action is not a primary mission of art or the artist. It is the duty of organizations, namely the goverments. And they seem to be rather reluctant unless profit of some kind is involved. We, as individuals, cannot change the world or help the poor souls all around the world but can possibly reshape the political mindset.
This is surely far more difficult than exchanging kind words, and this is why used the phrase 'small talk'. People nowadays seem to believe that sharing ideas and feelings on social and virtual media relieves them from their humane responsibilities which I believe will have dire consequences.
A humbly agree with the majority of what you have sad. Only it seems that we have different understandings of the word "love". Thanks for taking the time and being constructive. A cup of coffee would be great if only we weren't so distant, geographically speaking
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ah what is love? many think it is hard to define. i don't. a person stepping in front of traffic for someone else is love. a person doing all in their power to help someone else, that's love. if you've seen adicted to love (sorry it's a bit long), they had it bang on:
"When I was a kid, my father had this dog that started to get all weak and sickly. He takes it to the vet, he examines it and says a maggot must have laid eggs in the dog's butt. The baby maggots have crawled up, now they've started to grow, and eventually they're gonna eat the dog alive from the inside. He says it should be put to sleep, because it's an old dog anyway. But father won't do it. He takes the dog home, he puts it on the bed, he reaches up into the dog, picking out the maggots with his finger, one by one. It takes him all night, but he gets every last one. That dog outlived my father. That's love, Sam. "
so you need two things in life i say, love and the power to act on it.
all the love in the world won't stop a person from dying of cancer... but a man on the street, with just a bit of love from even one person, he could be doing much better.
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First of all, strong image, well captured and a well deserved dd!
I just wanted to thank you both, Arekasadaro and Art-is-a-gift, for the interesting discussion. Many good points on both sides, I am just not sure I agree that we should leave all the doing to the governments. It is true they have a duty, at least they ought to have (that is where I like the American "for the People, by the People" sentiment). I do believe we as individuals have more power than that, though, much more than we may realise. Changing the whole world is a daunting task, governments will not do it, but we can, from each our corner and in each our own way. I believe that we can do more than we think we can
As for the social media, there are prizes and pitfalls to be sure. I just hope they serve to broaden people's horizons and lead to more understanding. After all, people can meet across oceans and discuss true kindness.
Again, thank you both.
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very well said. i think people need two things. they need to care (want to change the world) and they need the strength of mind to do it.
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Thanks for the kind and thoughtful reply mate. You've renewed my belief on positive and constructive exchange through comments on the internet.
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Gunna jump in here..
I just wanted to say i saw your little chain of comments and i appreciate what you said, and that you know how to have a beautifully peaceful conversation even with some disagreement.
I applaud you, sir
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It was my pleasure
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Love, and a million dollar bank account, tax free in the USA.
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