Presence, Responsibility, and the Art of Seeing People

In this episode of Rebel Artists Through Time, we sit down with photographer Leah den Bok and artist Willie Baronet for a deeply reflective conversation about presence, responsibility, and the ethics of storytelling.

Leah’s long-running project Humanizing the Homeless uses portraiture to restore dignity and visibility to people experiencing homelessness. Willie’s We Are All Homeless project collects and exhibits handwritten signs purchased directly from unhoused individuals, transforming them into powerful public installations.

Together, they explore:

• What it means to be truly present with another person
• Where documentation ends and responsibility begins
• How artists navigate the line between visibility and exploitation
• Why attention itself is never neutral
• And how art can quietly—but meaningfully—change how we see people

This is not an episode about spectacle or solutions.
It’s a conversation about care, craft, and the human consequences of how stories are told.