NYC: Janusz is telling his story while Josh is listening and giving him a new look. Janusz left the park with a new spark in his eyes and a spring in his step! See all the NYC photographs in this gallery.

Joshua Coombes, founder of #DoSomethingForNothing

It all started when...

I received an email from London on December 6th, 2015:

"My name is Joshua Coombes and I am a hairdresser from U.K. Recently I have started a project cutting hair for homeless people on the street in different cities. I will be in Paris on 17th-20th December doing this.
I am trying to find a photographer to document this one day for me. Please have a look at my Instagram - @joshuacoombes if you want to see more on what I've been doing. Or check out the #dosomethingfornothing
I understand this is quite a random request but I would love to hear back from you as it would be amazing to have a Parisian photographer to help me.
Hope to hear from you! Thanks, Joshua :)"

Although I was unable to be in Paris on those days, I immediately looked for someone local to help Josh. Laurent Demartini volunteered and spent those two days on the streets of Paris with Joshua. I was happy to be able to help, but sad that I couldn't be there myself.

Josh and I stayed in touch, determined that one day our paths would cross, and I would have the opportunity to tell his story through my lens. Thanks to the support of Fujifilm North America, who brought us together on the streets of New York City for 4 days in September 2017, we finally made it happen!

We hit the ground running as soon as I landed on Tuesday afternoon. Josh had arrived from the U.K. a couple of days earlier. I couldn’t wait to meet Josh and start documenting his work. My X100F was loaded and ready to capture compassion and hope.

Over the following four days on the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn, we met people from all different backgrounds. Homelessness can happen to anyone at any time. White or black, young or old, misfortune and adversity don’t discriminate. The photographs are displayed in this gallery.

Working with my Fujifilm X100F was the perfect choice for this project. The 23mm focal length allowed me to be physically close, while its small size and silent shutter made it unobtrusive and non intimidating. Every subject agreed to be photographed, but I didn’t start shooting right away, and Josh didn’t start cutting hair immediately either. Our first role was to listen, wipe tears and give hugs. We were always rewarded by the brightest smiles in the end!

I travel to Paris several times a year and I always go in January, it's one of my favorite times of the year for street photography. This year, instead of teaching a workshop, I spent the time documenting Josh on the streets of my beloved city. Josh travelled from London and we spend 3 full days all over the city meeting people from all different backgrounds who shared stories that will stay with us forever. The photographs are available in this gallery. My role was not only to photograph those touching moments, I was also Josh's interpreter. This experience was more challenging because my attention was divided between the visual storytelling and the translating. But it was even more intimate than the NYC experience because I was more immersed in the interactions.

Impromptu hair salon in Paris. See the Paris gallery here

What’s next for Josh? He obviously found his calling. As he recently wrote on Instagram: “This isn’t charity, it’s connection. It’s keeping all doors open to listen to others and learn.” I want to do all I can to support him in his mission to bring smiles in our challenging world, one haircut at a time. By doing so and sharing his experience, he is influencing others to also Do Something For Nothing, whatever that something may be.

As for me, this project has been life changing. I’ve been wanting to work on a humanitarian project for quite a while, and this is the perfect fit. Josh and I work well as a team, and the images I collected so far were definitely the most important photographs I’ve ever shot.

We wish to keep working together whenever possible to document other stories in other cities, to raise awareness and share the love. An ebook #DoSomethingForNothing in NYC is available for download to raise funds to help Josh keep doing what he does with so much passion. The Paris edition will be out soon. We will also have the first gallery showing of the project #DoSomethingForNothing New York City & Paris in Minneapolis in June 2018. We hope it will be the first of many.

Don’t forget to follow Josh on Instagram to see his before and after pics!

Gallery Exhibit

Want to bring this show to your gallery?

After a very successful exhibit at the beautiful Mpls Photo Center in Minneapolis June 8 -Aug. 18, 2018. The Prints are now ready to travel. Please contact Valerie for inquiries.