This is my first photographic project. I developed it during my course attended at the UC Berkeley Extension: Digital Photography in Practice and Context.

 

I worked on it with Petru Negura. While he was speaking with the homeless people on Telegraph avenue or People's park about their life, I tried to capture with my camera their face, body, gestures. 

 

This project explores the image of a category of socially marginalized people - the homeless. The pictures go beyond usual stereotypes with regard to these people, showing, from a closer glance, their human face. Sometimes, the photos capture in background some details or accessories of their daily life, making this way the image richer. The photos were taken in the places ordinarily attended by these people, most of them in the renowned "People's park" in Berkeley, or around it, in the streets. So, these pictures aim at representing the genuine world of the homeless people, with their own environment, belongings and stories. The subjects seldom pose in these photos. They either meditate, or tell their life story. 

 

This project will be continued with homeless people in Chisinau, Moldova (my home city). As one can see in these people's faces, they often feel excluded and marginalized. And they are so, be it in a poor or in a rich country.

We deny that we are all vulnerable (in front of the system) - we can remain alone, without any job, family, and home. Many people I photographed have had in the past a job, a family, a home, and the hope of a promising future.

 
This project does not emphasize the wonders and beauty of our world, but gives visibility to a "parallel reality," discovering marginal people's lives and stories, little explored, though we daily pass close by.

 

 

Aurelia Borzin