Our identity is what defines us to society but most importantly ourselves. Our identity is how we define ourselves and describe who we are to everyone else. In this photo-shoot, Heinz Homatsch shows the audience how simple it is for our identity to be taken from us. We see in this picture a homeless person with fabric covering them entirely. We have no idea who this person is or any information about what they look like. This shows how society views homelessness and homeless people. Their identity has been stripped from them and the only thing we are allowed to know about them is that they are homeless.
When society sees homelessness they do not see the person and that person’s identity means nothing to them as all that society chooses to see is that they are homeless. “The way the homelessness sector and the media communicate about homelessness has a direct impact on public understanding and attitudes towards the problem. This also affects whether the public will demand political change.”(1) Heinz uses this photograph to simply show the importance of the public’s view of these people and how important it is to a person that they have an individual identity. People should not be identified by one thing as a person is much more complex than what the pubic think of them upon first look.
Reference list
Crisis. (2017). Chapter 4: Public attitudes and homelessness | The Plan To End Homelessness | Crisis | Together we will end homelessness. [online] Available at: https://www.crisis.org.uk/ending-homelessness/the-plan-to-end-homelessness-full-version/background/chapter-4-public-attitudes-and-homelessness/.