Photographer left his cushy accounting job to capture the soul of urban homelessness

BY: JOHNATHAN MOSS

Accountant by profession, self taught photographer by design, Lee Jeffries left his longtime career to capture the soul that breathes through our city streets. He uses the homeless as his primary focus, casting a light on the inner beauty of a group of people often pushed to the peripheries of society. He is a story teller for the unheard, a champion for those who are often rendered invisible in the eyes of city populations.

Years ago, when Jeffries was in London preparing to run a marathon, he decided to wander the unlit alleyways to test his hand at street photography. As he began to focus his 70-200mm zoom lens on a young homeless woman, huddled for warmth in a sleeping bag, she caught him out of the corner of her eye and began to shout profanity from across the street. “I could have just walked away in an embarrassed state, or I could have gone over and apologized to her.” Jeffries remembers. He listened to his conscience, sucked up his pride, and walked over to talk with the woman who eventually opened up, telling him the tragic story of her drug addled life growing up without parents or a home. The image Jeffries took was a profound one, changing the way he approached photography forever.

Photo: © Lee Jeffries

His gritty and unflinching images envelop you, as they seem to capture an authentic aspect of raw human emotion that most photographers fail to. Jeffries felt that he didn’t want to exploit them, and to do that he simply listens to their thoughts and stories. He becomes friends with them, even buying lunch for a man who lost most of his fingers and toes to frostbite. Though his projects are completely self-funded, he often gives each person he meets money, and often donates camera and prints to global homeless and disability charities.

In his series of images called Homeless the subjects are bathed in light, not shadow. There is a glimmer of brilliance that dazzles their eyes, portraying a sense of transcendence from the blinder-sporting, cubicle mentality entrenched within all of us. The viewer is no longer able to remain apathetic; so easily indifferent as we normally are when side stepping the homeless huddled under newspapers on their way to the office.

“I’m stepping through the fear, in the hope that people will realize these people are just like me and you.” Jeffries says in an interview with TIME

Each portrait tells its own story—you can trace the scars and creases of their faces like a map of their life. With all the money Jeffries has given them, it is over-shadowed in comparison to the sense of dignity, compassion, and hope he attempts to give them.

You can buy prints from his collection here.