Local Photography Student Brings Rough Sleepers Into Sharp Focus

Wirral student Elizabeth Pennington, 20, has photographed homeless people across the country for her project Hear My Voice, which she hopes will raise awareness of the issue.

Elizabeth, who studies at Sheffield Hallam University, said the project had ‘opened her eyes’. She told the Liverpool Echo, “When I first started approaching people, I felt quite nervous. It made me realise I definitely had my own preconceptions and prejudices and that’s what we all need to break down. The people I met were so open and honest with me,” she said.

“It was interesting to see the reactions of people walking past – at times it felt like I was being looked down on and some seemed unsure of my intentions towards the people I was photographing. It’s been a real education for me.”

“Being from more of a rural area, homelessness wasn’t really apparent to me growing up – so I became more aware of it whenever I would go into Liverpool city centre. It’s an issue that isn’t talked about enough in the media, so I want to try and raise awareness in anyway I could.”

One Liverpool man she photographed, Paul (41), told Elizabeth of how he had lived in South Africa and Spain for many years, working as an English teacher. However, he lost everything after becoming addicted to drugs.

His friend Marcel, 29, from Pensby in Wirral, had a successful career in journalism, working in the USA and Germany up until last year, when he entered rehab for drug addiction. He now lives on the streets and says he faces daily attacks from others in the homeless community for “being university educated”. He added: “I had everything and now I have nothing. I’m living in a haze.”

However, Elizabeth also met a woman called Cathy, 40, who lives on the streets with her husband John. She told Elizabeth that a lot of people think that everyone who’s homeless is addicted to drugs and alcohol, but she said that’s simply not true.

Asked if she felt she was treated differently by passers-by, because she’s a woman, she told Elizabeth: “No, it’s just the same – we still get ignored most of the time, regardless of gender.”

Elizabeth began Hear My Voice last summer and is hoping to hold an exhibition on Merseyside soon.

You can see more of her work by going to her website http://lizzypennington8.wixsite.com/epphotography/hear-my-voice