Down and out in the South

This photobook contains 42 portraits of homeless men and women in South Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi. For these portraits, photographer Jan Banning came up with an original approach: to photograph people who are homeless as he would photograph any other member of society. That implied not scouting out the most picturesque people he could find, with beards and hats, and leaving out the typical paraphernalia, such as shopping carts and sleeping bags. His approach also implied not photographing them in dramatizing black and white. He photographed them in a studio setting, against a neutral backdrop, focusing on their individuality rather than on stereotypes. In essence showing who they are rather than what they are labeled.