Lee Jeffries Black and White Photography

I luckily stumbled upon this amazing Lee Jeffries photo pictured above. I have always thought there was something supremely beautiful and classic about black and white photography. So, as a huge fan of this format I was instantly drawn to this image.

Lee Jeffries photographic journey began with a chance meeting with a young homeless girl in the streets of London. In 2008, the photographer was in London to run a marathon, and a day before the race he decided to wander the city to take pictures. This is when he aimed and focused his lens on a young, homeless woman.  His actions were not warmly welcomed by the girl and she began shouting at him. But instead of just taking off, Jeffries chose to apologize for his perceived intrusion. The 18 year old then proceeded to share her story with him. After this encounter Jeffries about the homeless completely changes.

Going forward he didn’t want to exploit these people or steal photographs of them. He also made sure he got to know his subjects prior to or while shooting them. Jeffries says, “I need to see some kind of emotion in my subjects. I specifically look at people’s eyes—when I see it, I recognize it and feel it—and I repeat the process over and over again.” He tried to keep the contact as informal as possible by rarely taking notes, and prefers to take pictures while he is talking with his subjects to capture the “real emotion” in them.

Self-taught and self-funded, Jeffries has used vacation time to travel to Skid Row in Los Angeles three times, as well as Las Vegas, New York, London, Paris and Rome, to continue his project. He uses his photography to draw attention to and raise funds for the homeless, posting the images to Flickr and entering the work into competitions. The proceeds from Jeffries’s Blurb book, which features homeless portraits, go to the Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles and the photographer allows any charity to use his images free of charge.