Click here for a story I think we all should read.
Meet Leah Denbok, a 17-year-old photographer from Collingwood, Ont. In the past three years, she's walked the streets in her province in Toronto, Barrie and Kitchener, as well as in New York City, capturing the lives of the homeless with her photos.If you follow the above link, I think you will agree that Leah has succeeded on both counts.
Along with her father Tim, the pair offer $10 to each person for permission to tell their stories.
"With my book, I'm trying to portray two goals," said the teen photographer. "First of which is to shine a spotlight on the plight of homelessness, and second, I'd like to humanize homeless people because so often they're seen as subhuman individuals."
.. this is fine work .. When I first saw samples I was truly impressed, yet not knowing who the photog was.. Now even more impressed! I've been handing my cameras to other folks for 40 years.. just asking them to show me.. 'what they see' .. and I always remind folks that what or how they see.. may be far more important than what I see & how I see.
ReplyDeleteI always suggest the folks look up W Eugene Smith .. and see how such an exemplar inspired me.. The full story behind Minimata.. or 'the walk to paradise valley' set me upon a path I will walk to my final days.. even if just using my eyes as a camera..
I think Leah Denbok is light years ahead of me.. props to her!
I will check out Smith, Sal. Thanks for the reference. As for Leah Denbok, she appears to be, as we used to say, an old soul.
DeleteExcellent work, Lorne. It's heartening to see a young person demanding social justice.
ReplyDeleteWe need more such sensitive people in our world, Owen. Of that there is no doubt.
DeleteIn my practising years I discovered just how easy it is for perfectly ordinary people to trip up and fall between the cracks. It's the downside of social Darwinism and it's one of the reasons that I confine my charitable contributions to the Salvation Army. I have seen those people do truly wonderful work.
ReplyDeleteIn our giving, we always look to those with the lowest administrative costs, something not too hard to find out on the CRA website. In the city I live in, we are fortunate to have a number of agencies that look after the poor and homeless fairly well, including the Salvation Army. Toronto, on the other hand, appears to be in a state of perpetual crisis when it comes to the dispossessed.
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