无家可归的时尚摄影师
像纽约时尚摄影师Mark Reay这样有才华且成功的人居然会过着无家可归的日子，这真是令人难以置信。虽然他长相帅气、打扮得体且善于表达，但在时尚界打拼六年的他之前并没有家。
When Mark graduated from the University of Charleston, he obviously had no idea that he’d be homeless for a major chunk of his adult life. In the beginning it was by choice – he backpacked around Europe as a young man and then worked as a model for four years in Brussels – the experience gave him the experience of a new “hand to mouth” kind of lifestyle that would help him immensely later in life.
当Mark从美国查尔斯顿大学毕业的时候，他并不知道自己会在成年时过着无家可归的生活。刚开始这不过是他的选择——年轻的时候他背着背包在欧洲四处晃，还在布鲁塞尔当了四年模特。这样的生活让他体会到了吃了上顿没下顿的艰辛。
He moved back to New York in the late ’90s to take care of his dying father, and took on a few modelling assignments to keep the cash flowing. He was able to afford a $200 a month apartment in West Chelsea then, but after his father died in 2000, things got tough again. It was getting hard to make a living off modelling, especially since age was no longer on his side, so decided to give fashion photography a go.
90年代末他搬回了纽约照顾他那濒死的父亲，同时还签了几份模特合同赚钱。那时他还能负担起切尔西区两百美元一个月的房租，可当他的父亲在2000年去世后，他的生活又开始变得艰难起来。当模特赚来的钱基本难以维持他的生计，尤其是在他青春不再的时候，于是他决定尝试时尚摄影。
“I knew the fashion world, so I’d go to the shows and hang around backstage taking pictures,” he wrote for The Guardian. “People knew me from my modelling and I got a few decent shots. I figured I might have an eye for it and maybe I could make some money from it. It sounds glamorous, but I never got the campaigns. That’s where the money is. I foolishly believed I would make a decent income.”
Mark写道：“我了解时尚界，于是我去看各种秀并在后台拍照。我当模特的时候认识了不少人，因此我拍到了不少好照片。我发现也许我摄影天分，于是决定靠摄影赚钱。这听起来很光彩，但我根本没有得到什么广告活动，更别提赚钱了。我居然愚蠢地认为自己能赚不少钱。”
Things got so bad that soon Mark was living off his savings – he worked as a waiter and sold a few photo stories to websites, but none of it was enough to sustain a New York lifestyle. His first experience of being homeless eventually happened when he travelled to the south of France for a photography project. But like most good ideas the project didn’t produce any results. Worried that he’d outstayed his welcome at his friend’s place, he left for St. Tropez with his camera and laptop, and ended up sleeping in the hills.
很快Mark就要靠着自己的存款度日了。他边当服务员边卖照片给网站，但这些都不足以让他过着体面的纽约式生活。他在去法国南部一个摄影项目的时候，面临着第一次无家可归生涯。他参加的那次项目根本没什么结果，忧心自己在朋友那里会不受欢迎的他，带着摄像机和笔记本去了圣特鲁佩斯，睡在小山上。
“It wasn’t so bad to start,” Mark wrote. “I would store my laptop and cameras in a duffel bag in a garbage bag and hide it in the bushes. I had a small bedroll with me so I could sleep. I would get up at 6am, go to the park and head to the restaurants that had those outdoor sinks. I’d wash myself down, was my t-shirt or shirt so it could dry in the sun and slick my hair back with water and go sit in a cafe. Because I had a certain look, no one really questioned it. I just looked like a well-off man in shorts and a T-shirt. I had the confidence to just sit there, and I knew I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
Mark写道：“刚开始的时候事情并没有太糟糕。我把我的笔记本和摄像机用行李袋装起来，并用垃圾袋套上装在灌木丛里。我睡在自己随身携带的小睡袋里。早晨六点我会起来去有露天水槽的公园和餐厅，清理自己并洗衣服，在太阳底下晾干衣服后我会用水把头发梳到脑后，再去咖啡厅。由于我外表体面，因此没有人质疑我。我看上去就像一个穿着短裤和T恤的富人。我有信心坐在这里，我知道自己并没有做错什么事情。”“So began a period of my life sleeping rough,” he wrote, but insisted that it was still a happy time. Although he lived off his dwindling savings, he always made it a point to treat himself to rotisserie chicken at night, along with a chilled rosé – the cheapest one he could find at mini markets. “At night, I would put on a fresh shirt and go to one of the fancy bars with my wine in my bag. Again, maybe because I had a certain look, no one ever checked my bag. I’d just go in, nick a glass off the counter and drink my wine surrounded by millionaires.”
他表示虽然这样的生活很艰难，但那段时间里他很开心。虽然他靠着自己不断减少的存款生活，但他晚上还会拿吃烤鸡来犒劳自己，并买最便宜的玫瑰葡萄酒。他会将酒装在包里，走进酒吧并从柜台上拿杯子，自如地坐在百万富翁中间喝自带的酒。还是因为他外表得体，没有人检查他的包。
Mark wrote that this kind of lifestyle was okay for a while, but when he got tired of it, he moved back to New York again in 2006. He was completely broke, his family was in New Jersey, and he didn’t want to rely on his friends anymore. He moved into a hostel for a night using the money he earned from a backstage shoot, but when he woke up, he was covered in bed-bug bites. That’s when he remembered a friend’s rooftop in the East Village where they used to have cocktails. He snuck into the building and went to the rooftop the next night, and decided to stay there for a few days. And that ended up becoming his home for the next six years.
这样的生活过了一段时间之后，Mark感到厌倦不已，于是2006年的时候他又重新搬回了纽约。他完全破产了，他的家人住在新泽西，他也不想再麻烦他的朋友。他用后台摄影赚来的钱在旅馆里睡了一晚上，但第二天醒来他发现自己身上被虫子咬了。那时他想起来一个朋友曾在纽约东村的屋顶办过鸡尾酒会。他溜到那栋建筑里，晚上爬到楼顶睡觉，这里也成为了他接下来六年的居所。
“All I had were a few items of clothing and a thrift store blanket,” Mark wrote. “I got a cheap poncho, which I used to cover myself so I couldn’t be seen, and I put up a tarpaulin. It was September and it was manageable. I started to get a bit more work, but not enough to afford rent, so I figured I’d just stay there until I worked something out.” Instead of getting a home, Mark renewed his gym contract – only $70 a month – where he got access to showers, electricity, and a toilet. “I used to wash my clothes there – I had a few shirts, a pair of trousers, and socks – and dry them under the hand dryers.”
Mark写道：“我只有几件衣服和二手店里淘来的毯子。我有一个便宜的雨披，我会披上它避免自己被人看到，我还会盖上油布。那年九月，我得到了更多工作，但还是付不起房租，于是我决定在我赚到足够的钱之前都待在这里。”比起租房，Mark选择去健身房，每个月仅需70美元就能让他洗澡、充电和上厕所。他还在健身房洗衣服。
“That was my life. I’d get up, transform myself and go off to shoot these beautiful models at fashion week or on the street. As long as I was clean and fairly well dressed, no one questioned me. I told a few friends, but otherwise no one.”
“这是我的生活，我把自己打理好之后去拍摄时装周上美丽的模特。只要我干净且穿着得体，就不会有人质疑我。”
Mark makes it sound easy, but of course it wasn’t – he had his share of difficult times. he had to let himself into the building carefully, without making any noise, climb several flights of stairs, hop a fence while risking death with a huge drop below, and get under a tarpaulin that served as his home. He would tip over his pee bucket, shivered in the cold, worried that people might discover him, and endured horrible weather. Electric storms were terrifying, so he constantly had to check the weather reports to see what was coming. He kept getting more work, but his assignments earned him about $30,000 a year, which was hardly enough to live on in New York.
虽然Mark这种生活听起来很轻松就能做到，但实情并非如此。他要小心翼翼地潜入建筑免得被人看到，他爬到楼顶的时候还会有生命危险。他会踢翻自己的尿桶，在寒风中颤抖，担忧其他人可能会看到他并忍受恶劣的天气。雷暴非常恐怖，因此他每天都会看天气预报。他接的工作越来越多，但3万美元的年薪并不足以供他在纽约生活。
Eventually, things got better to a point where Mark was able to get off the roof last summer. And interestingly, he’s come away from the experience with only positive thoughts. “It sounds peculiar, but you have to remember I’ve always been happy travelling around,” he wrote. “I don’t feel anything but lucky. I chose highly improbably careers; I mean, modelling, acting, and photography – they’re well known for economic uncertainty. But I get that it’s a peculiar situation, and I chose that peculiar situation.”
去年夏天Mark终于摆脱了屋顶生活。他写道：“这听起来很离奇，不过你要清楚我一直都乐意四处旅行。我觉得自己很幸运除此之外别无其他。我选择了收入不稳定的职业——模特、表演和摄影。但这是我的选择。
“I feel invigorated. It’s an odd double life, and I’ve been alone, but I’ve never felt lonely.”
“我觉得精神焕发。这是一段古怪的双重生活，虽然我一直是一个人，但我并不孤独。”
Mark’s remarkable story was covered in a documentary called Homme Less, filmed by his friend and director Thomas Wirthensohn. It “captures a raw and unfiltered moment in time, our time, and raises the question of how far we are from losing everything, even our homes. How often do we have to pretend that everything is fine in order to keep up the facade of being a well-off member of society? And how far do we have to go to take the financial pressure off our shoulders to live a more carefree life, a life we aspire to live?”
Mark的故事被拍成了名为Homme Less的纪录片，导演是他的朋友Thomas Wirthensohn。纪录片令人们不住地想，我们离失去一切包括我们的家有多远?我们曾多少次假装一切都很好?为了过上一段更自在的生活，我们又在肩上承担了多少经济压力?
