Collingwood photographer featured on CBS News for shining a spotlight on the plight of the homeless

At 20 years old, Leah den Bok has made a difference around the world.

For the past five years, the Collingwood woman has gained recognition and acclaim for her photography and the “Nowhere to Call Home” series of books.

The books feature photos and stories of homeless individuals from around the world and all proceeds from sales are donated to charities that assist homeless people.

She was recently featured on national television in the United States on CBS Sunday Morning.

“I was very surprised and excited,” she said. 

And while the pandemic has brought a number of things to a halt, den Bok said she and her father, Tim, have continued to take photographs of homeless individuals in Toronto.

“We began to realize COVID is really affecting people experiencing homelessness,” she said. 

“It’s making their lives that have already been hard, almost unbearable.”

She said these individuals don’t have access to bathrooms as a result of COVID-19 and people are less likely to give them money because of physical distancing.

“It’s very important for us to go get their stories and get their perspective on how the pandemic is affecting them,” she said. “We’ve got really sad and striking stories.”

Leah has a unique connection to homeless people, as her mother Sara, was homeless as a child before she was dropped off by a police officer at Nirmala Shishu Bhavan (Mother Teresa’s orphanage in Calcutta).

“That’s a huge factor because Mother Teresa cared for people experiencing homelessness,” Leah said. “If she hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t be alive because my mother wouldn’t have been saved.”

When she started photographing homeless people, she was trying to build her portfolio, but quickly learned that many of them were humble people who had a lot of misfortune.

“I had only been told negative things about these people,” she said. “I found it to be a huge eye-opener. Everything we had heard about these people was virtually untrue.”

She is currently working on her fourth book. For more information, visit .