Forgotten

Forgotten is a project which inverts the language of censorship, using black and white photography and colourful blocks censoring out places associated with the homeless persons of Toronto. In doing so, it asks the viewer to fill in the blanks and confront their own biases towards homeless individuals. The subject of this series are homeless individuals and the places that are important to them. Each image has the subject blocked out, which serves to preserve and respect the privacy of the individuals pictured and forces the viewer to look for clues elsewhere in and around the image to determine the subject. Some images are easier to decode than others, however the process of decoding these images asks the viewer to confront the biases and generalisations that viewers might hold. The motif of censorship was chosen as homelessness has been an issue that municipalities have ignored or tried to sweep under the rug. It was created as a response to the City of Toronto budget freeze and cuts to programs which help the homeless in 2018 and 2019. During that period, Toronto Public Health had requested a 2% budget increase for their program, Ending Homelessness. They received cuts totaling $10 million, approximately 14% of their annual budget.