New Exhibition Focuses on People Society Prefers to Avoid

Photographer Julie Rosen says that people have a tendency to avoid encounters with homeless people. This is a tendency she has defied for decades.

A new exhibition opening at Arc Stages’ Radius Gallery in Pleasantville on January 26—In Plain Sight: Portraits of the Unseen—documents the fleeting connections Rosen has made with people who find themselves on the streets. The Scarsdale photographer’s interest in capturing images of the homeless and other marginalized people stems from a profound sense of curiosity.

Rosen, who shoots her work with her Canon 40D camera, explains that she first started photographing in Santa Monica, California. “They have a large homeless community on the beach and there were a lot of kids and a lot of drugs and whatever. It was just fascinating to me that they created a community and worked. I watched everybody walk by and everybody turned away or wouldn’t even give them the time of day. I’m drawn to what I have never experienced.”

The exhibition’s 20 to 25 photographs – some color and some black-and-white – depict people whose faces display the wear of hard times, substance abuse or mental illness. The portraits can be difficult to look at, which is one of Rosen’s points.

“I want [visitors] to feel uncomfortable. I want them to look and question and feel,” says Rosen. “It’s not a comfortable thing to see someone on the street or laying their head on cinderblock and calling it a bed… I want [visitors] to acknowledge their existence and not just look away and go on with their own lives.”

In her early days, Rosen used soup and sandwiches to break the ice and persuade her subjects to be photographed.

“They don’t want to be seen like this, but with some soup and a sandwich, it was better. I wasn’t humiliating them, and I tried to do it with as much respect as I possibly could,” says Rosen. “I’ve learned that there is a community and that they help each other.”

Most recently, Rosen has photographed her subjects in and around Grand Central Terminal in New York City. During her excursions, she has learned about the daily strategies that many homeless people use to survive in public without privacy, kitchens or spaces for self-care.

Her photographic journey with the homeless populations on both coasts continues to prompt questions.

“I always wonder about their stories. I’m fascinated with ‘how did you get here? How did you get on the street?’ Some of them are young, good-looking people,” says Rosen. “I don’t know the answer, but I will continue to do what I’m doing. Not because of shows or galleries; I just really like the interaction. I like to see them, and I like to acknowledge them.”

An opening reception will take place on January 26 and the exhibition will remain on view through May.