Heartbreaking photo shows homeless man peering through pub window to watch television in poignant reminder of life on the streets
Photographer Damien Demolder, who captured the image in Bristol, says it shows the separation felt by those sleeping rough in Britain
A HOMELESS man peers through the window of a warm pub to watch the television in a poignant reminder of life on the streets.
Photographer Damien Demolder, who captured the image in Bristol, says it shows the separation felt by those sleeping rough in Britain.
It comes a week after another heartbreaking photo showed a rough sleeper perched on the ledge of a railway bridge 20ft above the River Thames in London.
Damien, a professional photographer, was visiting Bristol for the first time when he spotted the man outside the Watershed pub on the plush Harbourside.
Dressed in a long dirty coat and torn jeans and with his grey hair bursting out from under his hat, the man is practically invisible to the customers inside.
He appears to be peering in at a large screen TV, which is showing a news report on that day's horse racing.
Damien, 47, said he left a personal connection with the man's plight.
He said: "When I was a kid we didn't have a TV because my parents thought it would rot our brains.
"So me and my brother used to look out of our window and watch football on the neighbour's TV through the window and listen to the match commentary on the radio.
"Because of that I instantly felt real empathy for him, because it's like what we used to do but he's obviously in a completely different situation.
"I don't know him but he seemed like a really harmless guy.
"A lot of people are scared of homeless people, they see them as desperate and think they're going to do something.
"But this guy is engaging in a passive activity, he is not begging, he is not drunk and rolling around everywhere, he is just quietly watching television.
"He is just trying to do something the other half of people do and have a normal life."
Last week a shocking picture from above showed a man in a sleeping bag, using a trainer for a pillow, on the side of the Hungerford railway bridge between London's Charing Cross station and the Southbank.
The man would have had to make a precarious leap over a barrier from the adjacent footbridge to reach the secluded ledge.
Homelessness charity Crisis says rough sleepers die aged just 47 on average and are 17 times more likely to fall victim to violence.
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