Why would a photographer to the stars turn his lens on homeless young people living on the streets of Liverpool?, asks Laura Davis

THE backdrop was one he had used many times in fashion shoots – an abandoned factory, fascinating in its decay, which provided a dramatic contrast with the designer dresses he aimed to show off.

This time, however, the fierce expression on the face of Perou’s subject came from months of living on the street, rather than hours spent practising in front of the mirror.

“We were standing next to a palette board that was covered in dried blood and faeces and needles,” says the photographer, who has snapped sports, music and film stars including Cate Blanchett, Samuel L Jackson, Daniel Craig and Katy Perry.

“It was beyond disgusting – like being in a wartime field hospital. This 18-year-old kid we were with pointed to it and said, ‘That’s my bed’.”

Perou’s own bed is situated within his comfortable home on a 39-acre farm in Kent. By his own admission, he used to walk past homeless people on the street, sad for their predicament but convinced any money he gave them would be spent on drugs or alcohol.

Then he was invited to take part in the Homeless & The Arts campaign, and was suddenly confronted with the issue face-to-face.

“I feel embarrassed,” says Perou, whose photographs of young homeless Liverpudlians are being displayed in an online gallery to raise awareness.

“That’s one of the reasons that, in the past, I’ve looked in the opposite direction when someone’s asked me for a couple of quid.

“It is embarrassing that I have more space than I need for me and my family. I’m not encouraging everyone to sell their houses and live in Communist-style blocks where we all have the same, but we do have a social responsibility to people who are less well off than ourselves.

“It makes economic sense to me that we would help kids now before they become a massive burden on society where they have to fund their drink and drug addiction by stealing and begging.”

Perou made several visits to shelters in Liverpool and Manchester, talking with the young people he met before taking their portraits.

“There’s a long tradition in photography of exploiting homeless people because they’re photogenic and it’s an easy issue to find and portray,” he says.

“One of the things the young people were telling me was that they don’t feel respected. People ignore them and treat them like lesser citizens. I wanted to photograph them with the same respect I would give, say, David Beckham.”

In his images, the young people appear translucent as if beginning to fade from sight, but their eyes meet the viewer’s gaze with a directness that forces home the campaign’s slogan: “Admit I exist”.

The idea for the project came from 20-year-old James McNaughton, who four years ago found himself among the British living on the streets. He left his family’s home in Newcastle after many months of blazing rows with his step-father, assuming he would be easily able to find a council flat.

“On the first night, I realised I had no idea where the council was based or what help was available to me,” he says. “I was too prideful to go to a member of the public and ask where I could get support.”

He slept rough in churchyards, tunnels and car parks, shoplifting food when he made too little money from begging. After the first few months, he met a group of middle-aged homeless people who showed him the best places to sleep and find food.

“When you’re living on a day-to-day survival basis, it’s very hard to look forward, which is why I think people stay homeless for years – foremost in their mind is ‘where do I sleep and what do I eat?’,” says James.

He’d been on the streets for six months when a passing police officer asked his date of birth and drove him straight to the council offices for help.

“If it hadn’t been for that policeman, I dread to think where I’d be,” he says.

James now lives in a social housing flat and, after several six-month contracts as an administrator for a social landlord and a project manager for Newcastle-based arts organisation Dance City, volunteers full-time for Homeless & The Arts – which is backed and funded by O2’s Think Big youth programme.

He cannot believe his luck, he says, particularly as he is now able to help other young people who are suffering the life he has managed to escape.

“If somebody had told me I would be doing this, I would have laughed in their face,” he says.

“I felt I was going to be homeless for the rest of my life.”

TO VIEW the exhibition, visit www.O2thinkbig.co.uk