Please help Illustration

This illustration demonstrates how homeless people in need of help can become criminalised in the public view. It can be easy to make assumptions about someones life to justify their circumstances than to admit that we live in an unjust world where bad things happen to good people with no rhyme or reason. I like the simplicity of this illustration creating a juxtaposition between the please help sign and the measurements behind suggesting that this is a mug shot photograph. It challenges the viewers perceptions and puts them in a position to chose how they view the character. The illustration is direct in the way it approaches a complex subject and I think works effectively. It puts the viewer in a position to make decision about the meaning of the image itself, is the character a criminal? are they being being targeted because of their circumstances? The illustration forces us to draw on our own preexisting bias to make a judgement of the character and attribute our own meaning to the scenario we are presented with. I like the way the illustration feels like the start of a conversation rather then the end, it triggers a though process rather than just presenting information.