I hesitated before I photographed this tramp, and I hesitated again before posting it here. Why? I suppose because I don't want to to appear to be exploiting someone else's misfortune for the sake of a photograph. But at the same time I know that he is just a part of the fabric of life, and that a camera is just a dispassionate means of capturing reality. Is it somehow worse to photograph a tramp than an elegant woman or a stockbroker who passes you on the street? I don't know. The strange thing is that I now realise I had not really been drawn to photograph the man, but his extraordinary coat.