October 24, 2011 Humbled in LA, Photographing the Homeless

Torres

This past week I took a trip to Los Angeles. It was technically a vacation but was not one of leisure. It was a trip purely for the intent to photographically capture individuals and areas that society is aware of but tend to ignore and sometimes forget; The homeless.

Why Los Angeles when I live in Minnesota? My father originally started this project and focus on the homeless a few years ago when he was in Las Vegas and eventually he turned it into a compilation book called Dark Cycle. He traveled to LA a few months back for a book signing event and saw the homeless situation in Los Angeles and felt compelled to return to capture it and bring more light to the situation. I was intrigued by the project and being a semi-pro photographer myself I went out there with him. Just father and son walking around the the most run down areas of downtown Los Angeles that most people would roll their windows up as they drove through and would never dare walk down. But we did and in hindsight, it's just another street in America and did I never really feel unsafe, we were cautious, but never felt in real danger.

In order to get to know them that's how we engaged everyone, we just walked up to them and started talking to them. After all they are people too believe it or not. There was only one individual that got agitated and made it clear he didn't want to be bothered, which was fine and expected from time to time. The rest were more than happy to talk and more than willing to allow us to capture them in a very personal and up close manner. Of course we helped them all out with their situations for the day and when we bumped into them the next day we were showered with Thank Yous for the breakfast, cup of coffee and newspapers they were able to get. We have made their day or even their week.

George

When you get to look past the outer shells we discovered these people at one time productive members of our society. Whether they were fighting wars for us, successful business owners, family men, hard workers they all ran into situations that sent them into the dark cycle of their lives. Some longer than others. But none of them were born this way they fell down into it.

I have never done anything like that before. Sure I have volunteered at shelters and various church events were we helped out shut-ins and other down on their luck individuals, but not face to face on the streets of downtown Los Angeles. It makes you really thankful for what we all have and the people we have it to share it with, but it also makes you never forget that there are people out there living in a way that is very hard for people to comprehend. From a distance you see a man sitting on the curb. Get up close and you see he gets his water from the nearby park fountain, his food from scraps in alleys, his clothes from rags, and goes to the bathroom wherever he can since most businesses don't let them in.

Over the next year as we work on Dark Cycle 2 or whatever we call it, I pray we can get into the right group and into the right areas where we can use this work as a way to help these people. Not just in Los Angeles but all over the country. Nearby at LA City Hall we saw and talked to all these young spoiled brats that call themselves the Occupy Wall Street crowd and you see what they are whining about and then look at desperation across the street, their arguments lose lots of credibility and makes them look really silly.

Los Angeles Photography Collection October 2011.

End of Line.

Posted in: People,Photography