About

Vic­tor Chirkin is a pho­tog­ra­ph­er liv­ing in North­ern Cal­i­for­nia.  He start­ed pho­tog­ra­phy as a cre­ative out­let near­ly 20 years ago.  His port­fo­lio includes land­scape, por­trai­ture and trav­el pho­tog­ra­phy.  A pho­tog­ra­phy project in the spring of 2013 changed the direc­tion of his pho­tog­ra­phy and his life.  His focus now is doc­u­men­tary pho­tog­ra­phy and activism, bring­ing atten­tion to the plight of the homeless.

“My vision for my pho­tog­ra­phy is one of ser­vice in the tra­di­tion  of James Nachtwey and Lisa Kris­tine.  Their focus has been more glob­al, bring­ing atten­tion to injus­tices around the world.  My mis­sion is to make a dif­fer­ence in my own backyard”

“My intent is to bring hope, dig­ni­ty, atten­tion and an iden­ti­ty to the For­got­ten “Souls” that live their lives in obscu­ri­ty, in the shad­ows and on the fringe of our com­mu­ni­ties.  My hope is that my work pro­motes under­stand­ing, evokes a sense of human­i­ty, inspires com­pas­sion and a desire to act.”

My sin­cere thanks to Jak Won­der­ly  whose sup­port, encour­age­ment and feed­back chal­lenged my pho­tog­ra­phy and pushed me to fol­low my vision.  With­out his class Recep­tive Pho­tog­ra­phy  and inspi­ra­tion, I would not have ever start­ed this jour­ney.  I also want to thank my friend Fritz Dut­ter and all the shel­ter­less peo­ple I have met for trust­ing me and allow­ing me to tell their sto­ry through words and photos.

“Give freely of your­self to oth­ers, for ser­vice is food for the soul”