Averting one's gaze... By Thomas CASILE

"La galère" (hard times)

Les Galleries (times of plenty)

The pictures we carefully selected for this project were taken in Clermont-Ferrand’s main square. We decided to use colour photos. We took the pictures directly in front of what we were trying to capture, to get the clearest view of the scene possible.

Downtown is always noisy. Nevertheless, it doesn't always smell bad. We were took these pictures just before winter arrived, so it wasn't very cold.

The first picture depicts a homeless man sitting on the ground with his dog lying on his lap. The colours are rather sinister which corresponds to the sad scene we were witnessing. This poor man looked very depressed and tired. It was in fact an emotional moment for us because we aren't used to seeing this type of thing in our daily lives. The title we gave to this picture is: "La galère (hard times)".

The second image is of a department store in Clermont. Not an ordinary one, the fanciest one in town where only the richest people can afford to go. The building is beautiful and well kept. We were mesmerized by its beauty. The Galleries were built in 1906 by Leon and Marcel Lamaiziere. This building obviously symbolizes wealth. The title we gave to the picture is: "Les Galleries (times of plenty)".

Our goal is obviously to illustrate the contrast between wealth and poverty in our city. For that we chose pictures that symbolize poverty and wealth. In one, the poor lonely homeless man with his only friend, and in the other, the place where rich people go to spend their money. The lonely fellow is fighting the cold, his hunger and many other difficulties we don't know much about, while the rich choose to have fun and spend astronomical amounts of money on clothes, etc., instead of helping the homeless. We find this very unfair.

In 2013, in France, 454 homeless people died out in the cold. It is our duty to help people in need because we are all human and everyone has the right to live decently. Are we, as a nation, too selfish to do anything about it?

The common title we gave the pictures is: "Averting one's gaze". We chose this title because the homeless man is averting his gaze (out of shame?) and because we, the well-off, avert our gaze from the problem of homelessness. Not everyone knows about these inequalities and people try not to think about these issues. I think these contrasting pictures succeed in conveying the story. I could have chosen a picture of a rich arrogant man driving his Porsche (which I took) but this would have laboured the point… Instead, I chose the picture of the fancy shop where wealthy people go and spend their money frivolously; that way, no one in particular is aimed at and we are reminded that we are all responsible...

This city is the home of everyone who lives in it and so we should contribute to helping the ones in need who share our space. People should think twice when they come across people begging; try to put yourself in their situation and imagine how hard and tiring life must be…