2007-12-13
art + artists
One week before Christmas I was prowling Main St in downtown looking for something to shoot, when I spotted a Santa working in front of the general store. We got to talking and I came to find out the poor guy was miserable. He lived alone, his health was poor, he hadn't had a job in a long time and he was stuck doing this crummy santa gig out in the cold. He was really in pain and down-and-out, yet, when the children showed up he was a prince. The irony in this pic is that the children were from an obviously well-to-do family - none of whom would probably ever know this man's heart-rending story - and he was giving to them when, in a perfect world and in the true spirit of Christmas, they should have been helping him.
Photographer Ian Grey usually devotes his time to macro-photography and team sports but he's long expressed an interest in doing commentary photos, documenting in particular people who are homeless or otherwise disenfranchised.
His efforts at this are few, but go back to the homeless man in Northampton, Massachusetts [pictured above] and more recently [2004, below] Santa in the Berkshires. Ian takes the time to meet and speak with the people he memorializes. I have lifted [with Ian's gracious consent] the pictures and text from his PBase folio. Check out more of Ian's work, which you can find on sale at the Williams College Museum of Art gift shop in Williamstown and Papyri Books in North Adams, Massachusetts.
His efforts at this are few, but go back to the homeless man in Northampton, Massachusetts [pictured above] and more recently [2004, below] Santa in the Berkshires. Ian takes the time to meet and speak with the people he memorializes. I have lifted [with Ian's gracious consent] the pictures and text from his PBase folio. Check out more of Ian's work, which you can find on sale at the Williams College Museum of Art gift shop in Williamstown and Papyri Books in North Adams, Massachusetts.
One week before Christmas I was prowling Main St in downtown looking for something to shoot, when I spotted a Santa working in front of the general store. We got to talking and I came to find out the poor guy was miserable. He lived alone, his health was poor, he hadn't had a job in a long time and he was stuck doing this crummy santa gig out in the cold. He was really in pain and down-and-out, yet, when the children showed up he was a prince. The irony in this pic is that the children were from an obviously well-to-do family - none of whom would probably ever know this man's heart-rending story - and he was giving to them when, in a perfect world and in the true spirit of Christmas, they should have been helping him.
Labels: christmas, homelessness, Ian Grey, photography, social comment
¶ 01:01
