Gallery: Homeless snappers bring London to life through lens

What do you get when you let 100 rough sleepers and vulnerably housed amateur photographers loose in London? A photo exhibition with a difference.

Social enterprise Café Art gave out 100 disposable Fujifilm cameras from St Paul’s Cathedral for five days in June as part of their annual MyLondon photography project.

The fruits of that project will be on show in this week’s 227-strong photo exhibition at Spitalfields Art Market next week, demonstrating a unique view of homelessness and rough sleeping and the English capital.

During the show, there will be a chance to vote for your favourite snap out of the top-20 finalists with the winners featuring in Café Art’s 2019 MyLondon calendar, which will be sold by the participants and others affected by homelessness.

Only the top 13 snaps will make it into the 2019 calendar, which generated £35,000 for vendors last year with £4 of the £5 price going to them, after a public vote.

Paul Ryan from Cafe Art said: “The project has been very successful in helping give participants a sense of self worth. By giving them confidence they are able to go further.

“The project has inspired other projects around the world and we have connected Fujifilm with partner projects in many cities, including Budapest, Sydney, New Orleans and Toronto. This year we helped set up MyBrighton & Hove and their calendar will launch at the same time as our one in October.”

The exhibition runs from Monday 30 July to Sunday 5 August in Spitalfields Arts Market from 10am to 5pm. The market is also providing space for artists who have been homeless and they are being mentored by regular market traders next week.

Images: Cafe Art