The starting image below of the boys in France asleep during the day in a station foyer with a sign, led me to think further as to why they were there. Was it because it was not safe for them to sleep at night or perhaps did not have enough money to eat and then get home?

I began by looking at the work of other photographers in the same subject area to investigate the possibility of developing my work in different directions.

• Lee Jeffries produced this image as part of his series on homeless people… He began photographing the London homeless in 2008 and his article was produced in the Daily Mail on 23.1.2012

• Dana Lixenberg – www.danalixenberg.com shows the images she produced for Time magazine of the portraits of residents of Haven House, a homeless shelter in Jeffersonville, Indiana in July 2013.

• Amelia Burns – In August 2013 she set up a mobile photography booth and travelled around America  to take pictures of the homeless.  The project was funded by donations through her website and can be viewed HERE.

• Lauren Greenfield – Her project documented poverty in Los Angeles and the project images can be seen HERE. In particular she was able to tell the story of one couple living on the streets.

• Steve Huff created a series of images for his homeless project between 2006-8. These can be seen HERE.

• Boris Mikailov – This image is taken from ‘1999 Case History’, an exhibition held at the MoMA in New York in 2011. This project consisted of 413 images taken between 1997-8 in the former Soviet Union. It is described by the Sacchi Gallery, London as “documenting the social oppression, the devastating poverty, the harshness and helplessness of everyday life for the homeless.” Some of the images can be seen HERE.

• Alec Soth – This image is taken from his ‘Broken Manual’ project  which documents hermits who have fled society.  It was exhibited at the Sean Kelly Gallery, New York:   and was also published in the magazine Interview in 2012.

• Jim Mortram – This image was taken from a British Journal of Photography article  in January 2013.  His images depict ” isolation, poverty, drug abuse, homelessness, self-harm, mental illness, juvenile crime and epilepsy.

The following websites are a useful source of statistical information and how each charity is working to help those in need:

• Catching Lives – http://www.catchinglives.org/
• Porchlight – http:// porchlight.org.uk/about/
• Crisis – http://crisis.org.uk/
• Shelter – http://shelter.org.uk/
• Barnados – http://barnados.org.uk/
• Julian Trust – http://juliantrust.org.uk/
• Railway Children – http://railwaychildren.org.uk/