Al Harley: 2010

Homelessness, addiction and alcoholism are all relevant problems in the current struggle of many in London today. There are many reasons why people fall into these holes. They can lose hope for their lives ever to return to ordinary or how they once were. In this series of images, texts and sounds I have looked into the lives and stories of the people that realised they did have a choice in this moment of darkness. They chose to overcome their problems with their own power and time.

I contacted The St Giles Trust based in Camberwell South East London and proposed my idea to the team and received a very positive response and was allowed to be put into contact with one of the classes there. I proposed my idea to a class of women and men who have recovered from one of the states I first mentioned and were now studying at St Giles to gain a qualification that meant they could give back to the people that are now in the situation they were once in.

This was purely an experiment for myself as much as a working project. I had never broken down the barrier of photographing and interviewing someone before or used medium format photography. I achieved all of these things and more with in this project. I sat down and discussed the changes these people had made in their lives for the better. Not only the changes to their life styles and long-term goals but also the change with in themselves and their personal identity’s. I heard their stories from how it went from bad to worse but then from good to great.

I wanted to achieve a sense of journey within my work, how these individuals have opened doors they never thought they could, only to be stuck with the decision on what one to open next.

At some point in their lives they realised that there was always choices, they just had to make the right ones.

These photographs are also accompanied by a sound piece constructed from the interviews and a text piece titled 'There is always a choice.' Written by the man in the bottom photographs.

These first set of images are of only two of the individuals.
The images side by side may be slightly cut short if you have a smaller screen.