Lynn Blodgett

Finding Grace is a coffee table sized book whose black and white head shot cover compels you to pick it up. “Who is that beautiful woman?” is your first thought. Her elegantly weathered face intrigues and draws you in. Your eyes move to her adorned hands prominently displayed, crossed at her throat and it is here that the inkling of truth shows. One, of the many rings seems to be a bandaged bottle cap. It isn’t until you pick up the book that the subtle subtitle, printed in a faint gray ink becomes apparent. Read “The Face of America’s Homeless” and you have that, “ah,” moment that makes you think, this book is saying something more than, “here is a beautiful face.” Lynn Blodgett’s intention is to make you see “the homeless” and he succeeds.

Mr. Blodgett started taking pictures as a child and continued to study photography through the years though he pursued a career in business. It was while participating in a photo workshop in New Mexico that he shot his first homeless portraits, a subject that he has now pursued over many years while traveling on business. Starting in 2004 through 2007, Blodgett has arranged 50 photo shoots, mainly outside and near homeless shelters, and shot 1500 subjects, all of them homeless. It is a selection of these black and white shots that make up the portraits of the book. People, who were used to being ignored, shunned, and marginalized posed for Lynn, because he saw them. In return, Blodgett wants you to understand that these people are your aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews, your family, your fellow American. He wants you take responsibility for what is happening to them as members of our society. They represent us, at our worst, because we’ve continued to ignore them. By not looking, we can dismiss them assuming them to be losers, druggies, lazy, and mentally unstable, as if they have failed in life and are solely responsible for their own fate. But, statistics prove us wrong in our assumptions.

The preface, written by Marian Wright Edelman, President of The Children’s Defense Fund and the Foreward, written by Danny Glover- Actor, Producer, and Humanitarian, both quote statistics and lament our societies lack of progress in eliminating homelessness and outline who the homeless really are. It is especially saddening given that such a large segment of the homeless are children and families. I appreciated the last segment in the book, “What can you do” by David Langness, who is a writer, and founder of “Homeless Healthcare LA.”

My impulse to pick up this book was triggered not only by the beauty in the face of the cover but her resemblance to my Aunt Theresa who died just a few weeks ago. I’d always loved her cracked and craggy features caused by years of outdoors work and living, and wanted to know who this doppelganger was. I see myself, my family and friends here. I’m not so far removed or ignorant of homelessness that I need the lesson these photo teach but I found them overwhelming nevertheless. I haven’t been able to resist picking it up and gazing, wondering who they are, what their stories are, and where they are now. There are a few I want to touch, so they will become character sketches. In the Afterward, Blodgett writes, “...and we will discover talented musicians, bricklayers, and stockbrokers, businesswomen and poets.” I hope I can honor those people I am finding here through my own interpretation of fully developed characters. People aren’t just the circumstances you find them in. What a great lesson for a writer.
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