Nearly invisible

by Moyra Peralta

In the mid-1970s, while working in night hostels, Moyra Peralta began a personal journey to document the lives of the people she met who lived on London's streets. Her subjects welcomed her into their lives so that she was able to photograph in depth their harsh living conditions, their way of life on the street and the camaraderie between individuals. This photographer's deep and committed engagement over the years has given her a compassionate perspective on marginalized groups of people. Her photographic journey includes a visual essay of the last days of the Waterloo Bullring inhabitants, whose 15-year experiment in self-determination is symbolic of many homeless communities. The story culminates on a note of hope, that of moving on from homelessness. The book, a selection of some 288 photographs taken over three decades, contains a critical introduction by John Berger and a commentary by Alan Bennett.