The Bird

Photography and words by Matt Leech

The Bird began with a simple question: what are you giving the middle finger to?

For me, it was alcohol and drugs. I have now been clean and sober for ten years, so I am celebrating that with this, the most defiant of all gestures!

Once I started asking others the same question, I realised something important. Most people have something. They are railing against an often-invisible demon, fighting their own personal battle.

This project is about discovering those people. Sometimes ones the world often overlooks. People experiencing homelessness, those who feel unseen, those who have been knocked down more times than they can count.

When I point a camera at them and ask them that question, for a moment, they are no longer invisible and their internal battle recedes. The bird gives them that power.

Some responses are serious. Some are lighthearted. But all of them are honest.