The back page of the latest The Big Issue has an advertisement for a photo competition, sponsored by the City of Sydney. Nothing remarkable about that you might think. Except that, one of the categories for the competition is people who are homeless – photographers are being encouraged to take photos of the homeless for financial gain.
I’m really in two minds about this. One’s immediate reaction is to be repulsed and to think that the City of Sydney should be spending its time and dollars on eliminating homelessness, rather than appearing to be glorifying it. Maybe it already is – from here in Melbourne, there’s not much visibility of local government in Sydney.
On the other hand though, by not doing this, are we actually discriminating against the homeless, more so than what they are discrimated against now? I’m just not sure.
Paul Daniel's Views On The World, For What They're Worth 
Leave a Reply