Poverty and Hunger

This image has all the right elements to be a winning image for this subject. A powerful and attention-grabbing stare, an aged person who looks as though he has been homeless for years, textures galore, a glimpse of an historical building that has strength, darkness, but the beauty of light on the subjects face and clothed body. The man's beard and hair is the whitest part of the image, which focuses your attention on the mans face immediately. A great image for many reasons.

I loved the simplicity of this shot, showing just some feet sticking out of a cardboard box home. Looks like it could be a crop of a wider frame as quite grainy, but even so, nice idea. The two feet gently touch together shows that the person is alive, and awake in their cardboard hideaway. A place they can call their own, even if it's just for a few hours.

Loved the sense of the echoey underpass, all dark, but lit with those golden reflections and the row of lights. The photographer hasn't tried to brighten up the shadows and that works well in this shot. The lonely figure holds your attention, almost as a silhouette. So often this is where you come across homeless people so that they can get your attention. This image definitely grabbed mine! Nice work.

The angle this was shot, stuck me, as it focuses your eye straight away onto the missing limb. The photographer clearly had enough of a relationship with this person to be allowed to take this shot, and to know his back story. Sometimes a rapport is required to get this access. I liked seeing the clean looking buildings coming into frame and sky.

Some of the strongest images in this category are when the person in the image is looking directly at camera. Here you have a little girl or boy drinking water from a tap. Hand covering their mouth, with despair and sadness in their eyes. Eyes in centre of frame, no other element is needed. A beautifully intimate shot.

This graphic image almost confuses the eye when you first look at it. But once you have worked out what it shows, it's quite impressive. A man sleeping and covered in bags or plastic covers that are highly reflective. The image is looking straight down onto the man, with empty plastic pots. There is so much information for your eye to take in, it never gets bored!

An elderly lady whose life has clearly been very hard, with dirty hands and feet, wrinkles and sadness. However, she sits with a sense of decorum and pride, and how she is dressed with a scarf in her hair and a purple smart overcoat shows that she wants to try to look the best she can. I feel very sad when I gaze into this portrait, but also happiness too. Sitting at the side of a road, on dirt, the image feels as though some of the colour has been taken out, and the light flattened. A portrait is a winning portrait when it makes the viewer want to meet the person and chat to them. I want to do this with this person. A great shot.

Hustle and bustle of a busy commuter street somewhere in a large city, with movement blur emphasising this well. The man begging on his hands and knees is sharp, amidst the people walking by, shows the contrast of their fortunes. The beggar looking up to the photographer makes this image for me. Again, a moment in time, captured well.

The size of the art installation dwarfs the figure who is lying next to it, almost to the extent of making the figure incidental. Usually, a homeless person within any image takes your attention away from anything else, but not here which is why I like this one. It also doesn't feel like a street setting, more a curated garden, clean and void of rubbish. Again, this is somewhat different to many of the other images in this competition. Lovely light, a sense of peace and space. Works well in black and white to enhance clarity of textures.

Shot from below the subject, who is looking upwards in hope, this little child has flies on his face. A very sad moment and situation highlighting true poverty. The mother looking down upon her child, again with sadness. I liked the colours of the clothing and blankets against the painted wall behind, and the simplicity of the scene.

There were quite a few images like this in the competition, where a homeless person was positioned against a backdrop of contradictory or enhancing messaging via billboard or other advertising. But I felt this was the best one as was clean, framed nicely, with the homeless person praying, looking sad and desperate. The message in this instance is advertising a luxury fashion brand, but also telling people to be their own boss. In a way, this is what the homeless person is doing, although not by choice I assume. Nicely shot, clever, and works great in black and white too.

A crowd of tourists, surrounding a man hunched over with a stick and an old plastic bottle being used to beg for money. In black and white it dramatises this scene, the light behind the man makes the figure's shape stand out. The crowd ignoring him. Very poignant and beautifully answers this brief.

This image reminded me of a similar one that I took myself when I spent five weeks in India a few years ago. Love the randomness you sometimes find when photographing street scenes, and this photographer has caught the moment where the mother is receiving a coin from a child, telling the story of the purpose of this balancing act.

This image almost made it into the top 10, for its chaotic nature of a typical Indian street scene. People going about their daily business, travelling, selling, standing, watching, interacting, and just generally 'being'. The hue of the daylight, again, is typically Indian. I generally appreciate street photography which makes you both want to go to experience the place it shows, but at the same time, be thankful you are not there too. Powerful.