Photo © Nadia Tyson
Portrait - NOMINEE: Nadia Tyson
Headshots for the Homeless
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Los Angeles is a city where technological and cultural developments have propelled prosperity to great new heights. But even as the standard of living for the average Angeleno marches upward and luxury grows increasingly widespread, a great tragedy persists for a pocket of this city's denizens. The tragedy, of course, is that LA is the homelessness capital of the country with around 55,000 people considered homeless on any given night (https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-homeless-how-we-got-here-20180201-story.html). The National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) reports show that 85% of these people are individuals, 33% are under the age of 24 and 48% of homeless individuals were found to be living without shelter.
After working with homelessness for the last three years, I recently became both fascinated and disturbed by how LA sees or does not see the homeless people living amongst us. I decided I wanted to do something that could grab people’s attention and see homeless people as people with dignity. I realized that if people see the homeless as human beings with value, they may be compelled to do something to help as opposed to ignoring them.
I collaborated with one of the best homelessness organizations in LA called Step Up (http://www.stepuponsecond.org/). I shot headshots of about 80 homeless people there who volunteered and were excited to participate in the project. Each of them told us a little bit about their stories—not just the sad parts but the parts that show who they are. My goal was to photograph them as I would a client; allowing them to feel at ease and acknowledged. Each of the people photographed received copies of their photo and this was, for most, the only photo of themselves they have.
About author:
Nadia Tyson is a documentary, fine art and headshot photographer with over fifteen years of experience. She began working in the field of photography while attending the University of California Santa Barbara where she worked as a photo editor for her school paper. Since then, Nadia has spent a total of two years globetrotting and freelancing. She has traveled to over fifty countries that range from Syria, Ghana, India to Cuba.
Nadia has a Masters in Education and currently teaches photography to middle school students in Palos Verdes.
After working with homelessness for the last three years, I recently became both fascinated and disturbed by how LA sees or does not see the homeless people living amongst us. I decided I wanted to do something that could grab people’s attention and see homeless people as people with dignity. I realized that if people see the homeless as human beings with value, they may be compelled to do something to help as opposed to ignoring them.
I collaborated with one of the best homelessness organizations in LA called Step Up (http://www.stepuponsecond.org/). I shot headshots of about 80 homeless people there who volunteered and were excited to participate in the project. Each of them told us a little bit about their stories—not just the sad parts but the parts that show who they are. My goal was to photograph them as I would a client; allowing them to feel at ease and acknowledged. Each of the people photographed received copies of their photo and this was, for most, the only photo of themselves they have.
About author:
Nadia Tyson is a documentary, fine art and headshot photographer with over fifteen years of experience. She began working in the field of photography while attending the University of California Santa Barbara where she worked as a photo editor for her school paper. Since then, Nadia has spent a total of two years globetrotting and freelancing. She has traveled to over fifty countries that range from Syria, Ghana, India to Cuba.
Nadia has a Masters in Education and currently teaches photography to middle school students in Palos Verdes.