Capturing Humanity: Intimate portraits of London’s homeless

Amy Smirk explores the photographic legacy of Moyra Peralta, whose work movingly captures the experience of homelessness in London

Homeless man Zy with his new set of false teeth (Photos by Moyra Peralta/Courtesy of Bishopsgate Institute)

What always struck me about Moyra Peralta’s photographs was the authentic and joyful connections I could feel between her and the people she captured through her lens. Her images communicate a deeply personal relationship to the community she documented.

While a student in the 1970s, Moyra began working in hostels and soup kitchens where she immersed herself in documenting aspects of homelessness.

Photographer Moyra Peralta with a homeless female friend, Mary, in Spitalfields, in the 1970s (Moyra Peralta/Courtesy of Bishopsgate Institute)

Invited into the lives of those she encountered, Moyra bore witness to the existing social conditions they faced. As a photographer she sought to offer an unbiased look into their world, seeing individuals and their experiences as an important part of our social history.

In conversation with Moyra’s grandson, he shared with me that she lived in the homeless shelter for some time and that was how she was able to build such a strong trusting friendship with her subjects. “She became a part of their lives, and they became a part of hers.”

A group of homeless men and Peralta sitting at Marble Arch (Moyra Peralta/Courtesy of Bishopsgate Institute)

Peralta and ‘Birdman’ Bert (homeless since age 14) feed birds together in St James’s Park (Moyra Peralta/Courtesy of Bishopsgate Institute)

Her images sought to bring relief to the people she met on the streets of London while immortalising their experiences and celebrating their lives through her warm and connected shooting style.

She tried to portray them from their own perspectives, to allow them a voice through her images, a platform for their own expression.

Peralta gives a homeless friend, John W, a haircut (1990s) (Moyra Peralta/Courtesy of Bishopsgate Institute)

Zy with his new tricycle, specially made for him by Hells Angel friends and adapted for his special needs (Moyra Peralta/Courtesy of Bishopsgate Institute)

Zy and a friend looking at photos of themselves (Moyra Peralta/Courtesy of Bishopsgate Institute)

While other documentary photographers can give a feeling of “looking in” and observing without engagement, I’ve always had a sense of Moyra’s work coming from the inside out. A feeling of the very spirit of life on the street, the comradeship, the authenticity, the hardships endured, and the joys felt in the face of adversity by individuals and collectively.

In recognition of Moyra’s images, pioneering art critic, novelist and cultural thinker John Berger said: “We who look at her photographs are witnessing an exchange. We overhear with our eyes, two or more voices talking to one another. And the voices have allowed us to be there.”

Homeless men Peter and Ginger at the Memorial bench in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, in 1995 (Moyra Peralta/Courtesy of Bishopsgate Institute)

Mary surrounded by her belongings, reading ‘The Big Issue’, in Kingsway, in 1995 (Moyra Peralta/Courtesy of Bishopsgate Institute)

From her work documenting the objects, items and “survival kits” in the pockets of her comrades, to capturing the last days of the Waterloo Bullring inhabitants (Cardboard City), Moyra helped people reconnect with their humanity through her images. Celebrating the breadth of subjects in Moyra’s photography, her work was later compiled into a book Nearly Invisible and exhibited at the Open Eye Gallery.

Open Eye manager David Williams aptly said: “Her photographs eloquently remind us that the homeless, though existing in circumstances different to most, are individuals with the same emotions and feelings as all of us.”

Homeless man Darren in what he referred to as ‘my penthouse’ (Moyra Peralta/Courtesy of Bishopsgate Institute)

In response, Moyra’s grandson shared: “I feel from getting to know Moyra and other homeless people [that] their stories aren’t so estranged from the regular story we all go through. A simple action can change the path of one’s life so unexpectedly; anyone at any time could become these people.”

Today, Moyra’s work conveys a mosaic of the homeless experience to the rest of society, in a way only someone who was deeply connected to her own and her fellows’ humanity could.