Comments on: Moyra Peralta’s Street Portraits

By: annmarie hendrie (granger)

annmarie hendrie (granger) — Mon, 25 Nov 2013 12:55:32 +0000

hi i was one of these people that lived in the bullring and i remember grant zy and thats tam and shaun or yorkie as i knew him and martin zy lost his legs through a failed suicide attempt on a train track would love to see more pictures of the bullring if you have any

By: Moyra Peralta

Moyra Peralta — Tue, 13 Aug 2013 12:04:10 +0000

For Rebecca. As you so rightly identify, Rebecca, this page is not about photography per se, but rather about the human condition. Bill H. was a case in point… homelessness can happen to anyone. I have lost count of the men I have met on the street – and in hostels – who were neither habitual ‘dossers nor winos’, but ordinary middle-aged citizens evicted from their council homes (at the time) by Councils callously terminating the tenancy following the death of a parent with whom they lived. Bill was indeed a lovely and lovable man. So perceptive of you to ‘read’ the face. He was an ‘extra’ in the film ‘Edna, the Inebriate Woman’!

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 11:12:22 +0000

i love these! Bill H, looks like the nicest man! I would lvoe to know his story!

By: Tamara

Tamara — Wed, 31 Jul 2013 12:47:32 +0000

Love! Humanism at its best. Thank you for sharing

By: Paul Duane

Paul Duane — Thu, 25 Jul 2013 11:09:29 +0000

I passed this link on to my friend John Healy, author of The Grass Arena, and he replied with the following:

“I don’t know anyone in the photos- they were a little after my time but they were still not called homeless even then they were termed dossers and winos the more benign term homeless was extended to them about the 80s I think. Thanks for letting me see though.

Ex Wino emeritas!”

By: Paul Kelly

Paul Kelly — Thu, 25 Jul 2013 02:51:59 +0000

Haunting and touching.

By: Phil Maxwell

Phil Maxwell — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 13:30:47 +0000

A marvellous set of photographs showing great respect for the subjects. I remember photographing Sylvia in Liverpool street in the 1980’s; she had a beautiful face.

By: Mondo

Mondo — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 12:52:24 +0000

Stunning pictures, when we were visiting my London family (Dalston) in the seventies, at some point we would always pass by a Meths Man or group gathered round a fire.

Sleeping rough, and downing the hard stuff, seemed to be an older persons game back then. Even in the eighties as a photography student – taking shots around Charing Cross Road and St Martins – rough-sleepers, bag ladies and winos seemed to be at least sixty.

I’d love to know the stories of how they came to be where they were

By: Jose Cadaveira

Jose Cadaveira — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 10:31:46 +0000

Brilliant portraits, so moving.

By: Teresa Stokes

Teresa Stokes — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 09:41:27 +0000

I remember Mary well, always in that same spot at the northern end of Kingsway, I think it was an abandoned church. I worked in an office a few doors away in the 1980s, but didn’t know her name until today. I wonder if she is still around as I don’t think she was very old.