(in)visible people
I was in the Financial District in Seattle one day, and came across a man who was standing on a street corner trying to convey his anger about the war in Iraq. The business people wealking by made a clear effort to either look the other way, or even worse, look right at him, and see through him. Because of these efforts to ignore him, he became even more invisible than he already had been previously.
These kinds of public street preachers tend to already be in a class status that is underserved and ignored to begin with: homeless, poor, minorities, veterans, mentally unstable, or any combination of these.
For this project, I documented five individuals in public interactions where the public surrounding him/her was rendering the individual invisible (Set One), and five interactions of a similar nature where the public was rendering them visible (Set Two). I wrote a description of each individual’s actions, the public’s actions, then took a photograph of the area. I avoided taking photographs of the actual invisible/visible individuals because it would interfere with the interaction. Mostly because I felt that by recognizing the invisible, we render them to be visible. Instead, I wanted the viewer to imagine the invisible, and to feel a question in their mind of whether these individuals actually existed or not. In the same sense, I wanted to contrast imagining the invisible with the visible.
Set One: (The Invisibles)
1-1) South Station (Summer Street & Atlantic Avenue)
10-10-2004, 4pm
Man holding the door for people as they exit and saying “Thank you, have a good night”. He repeated this phrase aggressively regardless of how many people, if any, were passing through the doorway. He held a styrofoam cup in his left hand for donations. Passersby ignored him, but would walk through the door that he held open.
1-2) Garden Street at Massachusetts Avenue
10-12-2004, 2:30pm
Man standing on the side of a busy intersection with a cardboard sign that read “HOMELESS PLEASE HELP SPARE CHANGE THANK YOU GOD BLESS”.
He was smoking a cigarette and pacing up and down the sidewalk. People continued to drive.
1-3) Hawley & Summer Street (Au Bon Pain)
10-13-04, 4:15pm
Man pacing inside of fenced in outdoor seating area for a coffee shop. He smoked a cigar and talked loudly to himself about his rent and who he could split it with. On the ground near where he was, there was a large Store 24 bag filled with clothes and papers. Customers at the coffee shop would not look at him, but would acknowledge his existence by sitting on the other side of the outdoor seating area. In fact, all other people sat on the other half of the outdoor seating.
1-4) Park Street Station (Red Line Outbound)
10-15-04, 11:30 am
A voice coming from above on the stairway was soulfully singing “Somebody sing for me down there! Can’t you sing down there?” repeatedly. The few people in the station acted as though they did not notice.
1-5) #66 Bus
10-18-04, 9am
A man gets on the bus. It is rush hour and it is pretty full. He seems to address the people on the bus with his body language: He smiles, stands up straight, and attempts eye contact with people. He sits near the front and turns towards the back of the bus. He speaks in a voice not much louder than a normal speaking voice and says “Now normally, I don’t like to address it when someone who is drunk gets on the bus. But it does smell, and it’s pretty rude to make other people uncomfortable like that”. He then looks over the faces of the people on the bus. No one responds.
Set Two: (The non-Invisibles)
2-1) Harvard Square Station Entrance (The Pit)
10-16-2004,1pm
Kerry-Edwards campaigners handing out stickers and buttons. Some passersby would stop and talk; some would just take buttons and stickers
2-2) Brattle Street Au Bon Pain
10-17-2004, 2pm
Man performing a puppet show for the shoppers. He had three puppets, and sang children’s songs. He invited children to sing with him. He had a large audience.
2-3) Massachusetts Avenue/Harvard Square
10-16-2004, 1:15pm
Woman collecting for a grassroots campaign to “get Bush out of office”. She held a clipboard and a pen. Most people walking by said, “no, thank you”, but some did stop to talk.
2-4) Massachusetts Avenue/Harvard Square
10-16-2004, 1:15pm
Woman collecting money and talking to people about Planned Parenthood. Some people stopped to talk.
2-5) Boston Common (Tremont Side)
10-19-2004, 5pm
A group of tourists take a picture of a statue in Boston Common. The statue reflects light from the sun setting.