We’re going to show you 13 pictures of a diverse group of people.
And while you’re looking at these photos, we want you to guess which of these people are homeless.
Here they are:
Okay. So. What did you decide.
Is the homeless person the man in a suede blazer, who looks like he could be your high-school science teacher? The young woman who looks like she could be an indie-pop songstress? The woman with an amazing out-of-control afro, who looks like she knows exactly what she wants in life and how to get it?
Here’s the thing, the person in these pictures who currently doesn’t have a roof over their head…..?
It’s all of them.
Every single one of the people in these photographs are living on the streets. They don’t know whether they will have shelter from one night to the next. They don’t know where their next meal is coming from. They don’t know if their situation will have changed by next year. Ort in 5 years time, or in 10 years time.
The photo series is by artist Rosie Holtom, who started volunteering at a homeless shelter in London four years ago called Shelter from the Storm.
Once she started working there, she realised that the portrayal of the homeless population in mainstream media was hopelessly out-of-touch. In an interview with AlterNet she says: