Many homeless people go on the street not only to seek for spare changes, but recognition for their humanity. Sometimes even a smile or a greeting will do. I dedicated my photography final project to present these people as whom they are as a person, not what they do as the homeless. My photographs record them as individuals with characters, their own uniqueness and even their peculiarity. I looked at the work of Richard Avedon's American West and Peter Hujar's Portraits in Life and Death. Both of these photographers take their photographs in a very confrontational way. The photographs are honest, sometimes instill with certain subjectivity.

In Hujar's work, the simple expression and the intense eyes of the person in the photograph interacts strongly with the viewers. They arouse emotions within me. I shall draw a quote from Susan Sontag, "Whatever their degree of 'realism,' all photographs embody a 'romantic relation to the reality". For my photographs, this relation is a result of the friendship I made with them, the experience or moment shared. Due to the certain interaction we made, there is give and take from me to them, and a give and take from them to me. It was then when they give me their face, body, and themselves, my photographs take them as who they are realistically and the romantic relation gives these photographs specific impressions of the individuals. Therefore, I hope the photographs do not merely capture the face of strangers.

Approaching many of the homeless is difficult; they often went through unpleasant experiences in life and live with distrust towards others. However, a lot of them are amicable and some are trying to leave the street. There are many reasons to why people become homeless, alcohol or drug addiction, the lost of jobs, or some even prefer to live that way. We need not to feel pity for them, but we must not treat them lesser than other people. With this attitude, I went onto the streets in the city and approach them with an open mind, with the exception of several times when the person seems intimidating or daunting. I would offer them help or simply start a conversation with them which could last between 10 minutes to hours. I usually tell them about myself and ask questions about them, slowly, they would feel comfortable talking to me. Then I would bring up the topic of my photography project and explain its nature. With their permission, I would proceed to photograph them. Some were very open and comfortable; some would still refuse after asking several times. would consider my impressions of them when I take their photos, this might lead to certain subjective views but every viewer will eventually romanticize each portrait with his/her subjectivity. This could again lead to interesting and unpredictable reactions.

After meeting all those people, I have learned about their lives and how they spend their days. Many usually just stand on the street all day asking for spare changes, some look for miscellany jobs to earn minimal cash, some play chess to win money, some perform on the street, some stay in shelter, and some crash in subway station. They are all similar to certain degree on the way they live, but they are all very different as an individual, on what their goals are, and their hopes in life. And this is very similar to all of us.