Exif data: NIKON D300, Focal Length: 70 mm, Aperture: f/5, Exposure: 1/500 sec, ISO Speed: 200, Flash: Not Fired
23/06/2009 at 21:17
Categories: [cities]  [people]  
35 comments
 

• It breaks my heart to see people in situations like this and even ignored. My husband says I have too big of a heart. Great capture Sherri.
  Shannon @ 2009-06-23 21:44:42
• That is a sad shot. We give all we can to the food bank and still feel like we could do more. What was the interaction with the mime?
  Michael Rawluk @ 2009-06-23 22:18:10
• This is a very sad part of today's reality. Where I live, this scene is rare but in the Toronto area this scene is evident everywhere.
  
  where
  Jocelyn @ 2009-06-23 22:28:05
• A sad picture of a situation which is quite common these days in large cities!
  Well seen and captured.
  Standley @ 2009-06-23 23:03:41
• These insightful words are so very true! Your picture matches perfectly the mood you depict with your words.
  Arnd @ 2009-06-24 00:54:25
• Powerful and sad. Somehow the mime - also - appears to be a part of this sad state of life.
  Marcie @ 2009-06-24 02:22:26
• Sad and true Sherri and this image looks like a part of this.
  Frida @ 2009-06-24 02:35:46
• good explanation to this picture!
  SePp @ 2009-06-24 03:39:30
• It is an odd world, where the homeless and hungry share the street with the well-fed and well-off. And a mime.
  Turnbill @ 2009-06-24 03:43:47
• sad and true! this image tell so much!
  Beat @ 2009-06-24 04:27:43
• If anyone would care to know what the life of a transient is like then you must read "Down and Out in Paris and London" by George Orwell. Outstanding explanations of what it is like for those surviving on the street. But, ultimately... the way I see it... it ALL comes down to choice. Everyone takes a hit sometimes, and sometimes you get knocked down. Those on the street are the people who made a decision to NOT get back up. It's their choice to live like that. I know this because years ago, I was very close to being THAT fellow in the picture...
  scott @ 2009-06-24 04:35:19
• I don't agree, it's not their choice. No one chooses to live as a bum on the street! It is unfortunate that people think that way. These people need help, they are not throw aways. They are human beings who need to be helped out of the deep hole that they are in. We can not as a society condemn and ignore them. When a homeless person asks me for money I had him money. People tell me that they will only use that for drugs and booze. That's only to justify in their own minds for not helping them out. It's easy to say that is their choice and then you feel justified in not helping them!
  John Maslowski @ 2009-06-24 05:26:58
• there is much to see in this photo and you captured it well ~elk
  elk @ 2009-06-24 05:29:25
• Une scène du dur quotidien des laissés pour compte de la machine économique dont les "lois" sont dictées par ses maîtres. Jamais le pouvoir n'a été concentré en si peu de mains, la dernière crise financière le démontre à suffisance ...
  petitlouis @ 2009-06-24 06:19:00
• we take them for granted it's like they're invisible.. i remember something from the movies about how to be unseen, being part of the street.. the scene.. dressing up as a homeless person is one way to do that..
  rian @ 2009-06-24 06:22:12
• Sad picture and sad but true words
  BoB @ 2009-06-24 06:47:04
• John, I would suggest you go talk to a few of these people. I "see" and have contact with them on a daily basis.
  scott @ 2009-06-24 07:46:53
• I live in a big city ( Chicago) and see homelessness on a daily basis and observe people going through the trash. I try not to exploit this situstion and I do not think I have posted any pictures as such. Sherri, I am not saying you have done so either. When I see a homeless person i try to give them not money, but something they need immediately. I ask if they are hungry and then get them some food. It is hard to say if they have given up or are struggling to get out of poverty in just a few minutes chat. We all see what we want to see and sometimes miss what is right in front of our eyes. For instance, how many people spotted the mime in the picture from yesterday? ? I bet not a lot. :)
  ken @ 2009-06-24 07:57:28
• Sad but true, powerful image.
  Ashish Sidapara @ 2009-06-24 08:25:52
• A fine street shot which has raised the topic in the minds of all your viewers - a valuable service of this fine picture.
  don @ 2009-06-24 09:05:14
• nice post, Sherri.
  
  so there's the mime again.
  Otto K. @ 2009-06-24 09:57:03
• Nice street scene.
  Scarabaeus @ 2009-06-24 10:06:09
• ... and there is that young man who does the mime too ...
  Diane @ 2009-06-24 12:42:12
• I like the street scene here
  yiannis krikis @ 2009-06-24 13:36:57
• Strong capture of the unfortunate invisible one of our society.... there are way too many of them...
  Ivar @ 2009-06-24 13:37:59
• Scott, I personally know some of these people and there are definitely reasons why they are homeless. Whether it be the economy, depression, metal health issues or whatever. They need help, they are the weak and less fortunate and the bottom line is they need help. Some are not capable of making decisions or even choices.
  John Maslowski @ 2009-06-24 20:21:56
• A strong thought provoking image together with the words stir up emotions and debate about how we live our lives. Nice one.
  Gordon @ 2009-06-24 23:50:10
• We no long see the homeless. We've become oblivious to them because their numbers have swelled. I am guilty.
  Robert @ 2009-06-25 07:04:17
• Powerful and sad image.
  Andy @ 2009-06-25 09:45:16
• The rich in this country have also managed to obliterate all sense of community, which I suppose, is just another way of phrasing the quote you used.
  
  Also relevant to our times, Anatole France said: "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread."
  
  And he said this: "Until one has loved an animal a part of one's soul remains unawakened."
  12bitphoto @ 2009-06-25 15:58:49
• well done sherri. the tendency to blame the victim, thankfully a minority one among the comments, is nearly as sad as the poverty.
  grant @ 2009-06-25 22:23:24
• Powerful composition.
  Joachim @ 2009-06-27 04:15:35
• Excellent capture here, Sherri. Your words and the quote, however sad and true, help to tell this story. I think people tend not to "see" the homeless, because if they do they are reminded that it could just as easily be them. All it takes is the loss of a job and the inability to find a new one. There but for the grace of God go I.
  Toni @ 2009-06-28 00:45:20
• yes...powerful and sad capture
  Olivier Jules @ 2009-06-28 05:10:49
• a sad one
  yz @ 2009-07-05 12:21:47

Walking along President Clinton Boulevard in Little Rock past the eateries...seemingly oblivious to everything.

As I think back on this scene I have the distinct feeling he is resigned to the fact that food within reach is no longer part of his life and the people along the sidewalk eating seemingly failed to notice him at all.


The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied, but written off as trash. The twentieth-century consumer economy has produced the first culture for which a beggar is a reminder of nothing.
- John Berger