A Closer Look: Portraits of the Homeless in New York City
These are not people from another planet or another world. These are your neighbors. We tend to avoid looking at these people when we walk down the street. We step over them or around them. We don’t really want to see them. We don’t want to see their faces.” Bill Bernstein
There are an estimated three-quarters of a million homeless people in the United States and photographer Bill Bernstein gets personal when he matches faces to this number. About Face: Portraits from the Bowery Mission is Bernstein’s newest exhibition featuring a striking series of 43″x62″ portraits of some of the homeless men and women photographed at the Bowery Mission in New York City.
Bill Bernstein, an esteemed photographer whose work has been featured in numerous magazines, first became interested in capturing the faces of the homeless when he was serving food at the Bowery Mission. He returned to the mission with a camera and photographed some of the men and women who passed through the doors. Accompanying Bernstein’s photographs is text taken from interviews conducted by Carey Wallace.
The Bowery Mission has served homeless men and women on the Bowery in New York City since 1879. The mission seeks to stop the cycle of homelessness by offering food, shelter, showers, clothing, and medical care to anyone seeking assistance.
Location: The Christian Herald Building, 132 Madison Ave at 31st Street, map
Subway: 6 to 28th Street
Dates and Times: Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm; through Dec 31st
Cost: Free
Photo credit: flickr
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