Overview
This book is about poverty and our responsibility to help those who are forced to live on the margins of society. The photographs in this book depict real people—suffering souls whose lives are spent in the harshly cruel prison of poverty. To look into their eyes, eyes that are profoundly human and tragically sad, compels the observer to want to do something to relieve the pain, to end the misery. —From the Introduction
"Gerry Straub is a modern-day Francis, jolting us into the truth by the power of images." —Giacomo Bini, O.F.M., Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor
Drawn by the values and example of Francis of Assisi, filmmaker and author Gerard Straub spent months living among the poor of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Detroit, Toronto, Rome, Nairobi, Brazil, India, the Philippines and Jamaica. "Armed only with a pen and a 35-mm camera," he listened to their stories, photographing the men, women and children who live desperate lives of poverty and hunger.
When Did I See You Hungry? is a powerful exploration of the desperation and squalor that is the plight of the poor.
Straub's introduction shares the deeply personal story of the life-changing conversion he experienced living with the Franciscan friars who minister daily to the poor and homeless. Giacomo Bini, O.F.M., Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor (the Franciscans) offers an introductory essay, "Receivers of Stolen Goods?"
As a silent meditation on poverty and its consequences, Straub offers more than 70 black-and-white photographs, concluding with a short meditation on "The Face of Poverty" by Franciscan Murray Bodo.
Nearly 200 more photographs, accompanied by the stories of those pictured as well as reflections on the challenge of responding to such poverty, make up "A Meditation in Images and Words." Includes "The True Meaning of Love," a short meditation by Monsignor Richard Albert of Kingston, Jamaica.
To conclude the photographic meditation, Straub offers "A Textual Meditation: Wisdom Across the Centuries," with dozens of spiritual writers offering their thoughts about the challenge to respond to poverty in our world. Includes essays by David Beckman, president of Bread for the World, and Ralph Plumb, president and CEO of Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles.
Finally, Straub shares "The Photographer's Journal," the moving personal journal he kept while taking these photographs as he journeyed with the poor and abandoned.
When Did I See You Hungry? is a photographic and textual meditation on the plight of the poor, telling the poignant, heartbreaking story of the homeless and poor while challenging and encouraging us to respond to the hungry among us. Click here for information on the film based on this book.
Synopsis
When Did I See You Hungry? is a photographic and textual meditation on the plight of the poor, documenting their life in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Italy, India, Jamaica, the Philippines, Kenya and Brazil. The numerous photographs and text -- by the author and by spiritual writers of many different faiths -- tell the heart-breaking story of the homeless and poor while challenging and encouraging us to help feed the hungry among us. Documentary filmmaker and author Gerard Thomas Straub spent months living among the poor, gathering their stories and his impressions in a startling and disquieting series of intensely personal, black-and-white photographs. Mr. Straub uses the camera as an instrument of contemplation, and his photographs allow us to see more closely things we know about but are not attentive to. More than just recording the agony of life in the slums, Mr. Straub's photographs capture the hidden humanity of the poor, their spirit of joy and will to survive.
Central California Catholic Life
...photographic and textual meditation on the poignant, heartbreaking story of the homeless and poor that challenges and encourages us to respond.—Diocese of Fresno