Margaret Vickers, The Homeless (DOCO 2025)

On this particular day that these images were taken, I had decided to drive to Mangere Bridge in South Auckland in order to try and get some ''interesting images'' for a particular competition theme with the Auckland Photography Society. My daughter and grandson decided to join me. My grandson is 11 years old. Before commencing on our walk along the walkways that surround the Mangere Bridges - we had a meal of chips. During our walk we came across some paraphernalia (mattresses and belongings) that belonged to some homeless people who were camping under these bridges. Because I was looking for some interesting images, I then suggested to my daughter that she act as the ''look out'' and then I also suggested that I have my grandson accompany me, while I photograph the paraphernalia. My grandson and I had to walk across a very busy road and then climb up an embankment to get to this location. While completing this task of taking some ''interesting photos'' - my daughter commenced to yell at the both of us - as she could see some homeless people who were standing in a location which was near to their campsite? So my grandson and I both scarpered out of this campsite. While trying to escape this situation, I took some images of my grandson - who was leaping out of some rocks that he happen to be standing in, at this time - lol! We then both scurried across the road and then proceeded to walk across the new Mangere Bridge at a very fast pace. I did not look back, however my daughter and grandson did look back and they said that the ''homeless'' were following us. We then got into our cars and drove to my daughter's house which is located in Otahuhu in South Auckland. Well in my opinion - I completed my plan on getting some ''interesting images''. However, when my daughter saw the images of her son ''leaping out of the rocks'' - in her opinion he looked like a ''homeless person'' trying to escape a bad situation. We were then all fell into hysterics and laughed a great deal!

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.