A man with a sign that reads, “HOMELESS,” sits in a D.C. Metro station in this award-winning photo by Langtree student Taiwan Parrish.
By Amy Macintyre
“What if you had to spend a week not having anything but a tin can and an old blanket? Imagine living on the street or sidewalk in a subway or cardboard box? What if you had to beg for money?”
These are the questions 10-year-old Taiwan Parrish posed in a statement that accompanied his award-winning photograph of a homeless man at the Woodley Park subway station in Washington, D.C.
When Taiwan announced to his mother, Dawn Parrish, that he was finished writing the statement, she began reading and was suddenly moved to tears.
“I sat down to read it and immediately started to cry,” Dawn said.
Taiwan, a 4th-grade Langtree Elementary School student, won a National Award of Excellence for the 2014-2015 Parent Teacher Association Reflections contest and was honored at this year’s state PTA convention in Atlantic City in April and the national PTA convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. The art contest is based on a theme and encompasses dance, literature, film, music, photography and 2-D visual arts. Elementary to high school students from across the country are invited to participate in the contest.
The 2014-2015 theme was “The world would be a better place if…” and Taiwan says he believes the world would be a better place if “they built more homes for the homeless.”
It came as no surprise to Dawn when Taiwan chose homelessness as his subject for the Reflections art contest. She says as long as she can remember, Taiwan has shown empathy towards the homeless and asks her for money to give to each person in need he encounters, even if it is just spare change.
“He’s always been really compassionate when it comes to people, and it bothers him whenever he sees homeless people and he wants them to have a home,” Dawn said.
She was impressed by his photograph, but she says even more impressive was his ability to write about homelessness with depth, which is exactly what propelled him through the school, county, state and eventually national contest.
“He just connected to the piece on a different level–very mature and very compassionate,” said Danielle Nutt, Langtree Elementary School PTA 2nd Vice President and chair of the Reflections contest.
Nutt says just like Dawn, she and the local judges had similar emotions upon reading Taiwan’s statement.
“I have a reaction every time,” Nutt said. “When we were giving out the local awards, I even got chocked up reading it.”
Already with his subject in mind for the this year’s contest, Dawn and Taiwan took a trip to D.C. to celebrate his 9th birthday last year. On their way back to their hotel, Taiwan took notice of a homeless man in the subway and first asked his mother if he could take his photograph.
Although he usually takes photographs with his mother’s Nikon D-60, Taiwan was able to improvise with his new birthday present, a Samsung Galaxy 4 smartphone.
Upon her approval, Taiwan approached the man, phone in hand, and asked to take his picture for a school project. The man smiled and nodded yes, and Taiwan snapped his photo and put some money in his can.
In the photograph, entitled “Take a walk in my shoes,” a homeless man sitting on the ground is the center of focus. He is gazing directly at the lens with a cardboard sign that reads in black marker, “HOMELESS. Please help. God bless you.”
Taiwan used Aviary, an Adobe application, to edit the photo. He has been taking photos since he was in the 1st grade and credits his natural abilities to the success of the photograph. He enjoys photography “because you get to push a lot of buttons,” he said.
He has entered the PTA contest four years in a row, and has previously won awards at the county level.
Taiwan says he chose this subject to draw attention to homelessness so that others will donate to them so they can afford homes.
“I hope that they feel that they can help the homeless also,” he said. “What if they were in that same position?”
So far he’s been successful. When Taiwan’s Sunday school teachers at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Cranbury heard about his award-winning photograph, they donated $150 to the charity of his choice–HomeFront, a charity whose mission is to end homelessness in Central New Jersey.
Nutt said Taiwan’s photograph had a great reception in the Langtree community and he was celebrated at the talent show earlier this year.
“He’s done more with this piece than he will ever understand,” Nutt said.
Although Taiwan did not attend the award ceremony at the National PTA convention in North Carolina in late June, he is looking forward to receiving his rewards of a silver plated Reflections medallion, a certificate and a cash prize of $200.
Taiwan plans to spend some of the money on a grooming kit for his favorite horse Razzle Dazzle, or “Razzie,” who doesn’t have a grooming a kit of her own at the Cream Ridge Equestrian Center in Cream Ridge. Photography and horse riding are Taiwan’s favorite hobbies, and at equestrian center, he has found a way to combine the two. When he is not volunteering by feeding and grooming the horses, you can find him photographing them. He says the horses there are one of his favorite subjects.
Next year, Dawn and Taiwan hope to revisit D.C. when his photograph will be displayed with the other PTA Reflections winners through the U.S. Department of Education Student Art Exhibit Program at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education building from Jan. 12- Feb. 26, 2016.
Dawn said Taiwan has expressed interest in going back to the same subway station to look for the man in his photograph.
“I wanted to see if he’d be in the same place or if he would actually be able to have just about enough money to get himself a little apartment,” Taiwan said.
Dawn said she is happy to take a ride on the metro to see if he’s there.
“The two of them went hand in hand to make it special,” she said.
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