Nearly Invisible

MOYRA PERALTA at The Open Eye Gallery

Reviewed by Colin Serjent

The Open Eye Gallery - which consistently stages highly impressive exhibitions of photography - enters the festive season with a sobering and poignant show of work by Moyra Peralta, who has documented the homeless in London over a thirty year period.

Without consciously aiming to do so, Peralta has built up what is considered to be one of the largest documentations of London’s homeless population ever made.

“The photographs in ‘Nearly Invisible’ offer a unique and emotional insight into the lives of people frequently marginalized, neglected and stigmatised by the wider society they once were a part of” said Open Eye manager David Williams.

All of Peralta’s photographs are taken and used with the consent and co-operation of her subjects, whether it be in night-shelters, hostels and refuge accommodation.

“Her photographs eloquently remind us”, added Williams, “that the homeless, though existing in circumstances different to most, are individuals with the same emotions and feelings as all of us.”

The exhibition runs until 17 January 2004.