Las Vegas Tunnels

There are hundreds of people living beneath the city of Las Vegas in Storm drains.  Tunnels are cool and dry in hot humid weather and appear to make good shelter. The danger is that when least expected a flash flood can occur and within seconds wash the tunnels clean. The encampments in a tunnel can disappear instantly and residents need to watch the weather and have an escape plan.

I went to Las Vegas, Nevada to see if I could get into the tunnels underneath the city and photograph the encampments there. I spent weeks making calls to outreach workers all of which fell flat. It was hard to get my calls returned and when I did get through to a human it would lead to a dead end over and over again.

The voices that I spoke to on the phone said the outreach teams are too afraid to enter the tunnels and they only go down with a police escort to do an annual head count. One social worker even came out and said that Las Vegas was not a homeless friendly city and that there are more laws against these people than to help them. I was warned to avoid the very tunnels I came to visit. The police do not enter the tunnels, in the underworld there is no protection, you are on your own.

To tag along with people who already knows the camps is always a blessing.  They know where it is safe and where to avoid.  Without that heads up I am destine to discover those facts on my own.

I can’t just show up at someone’s door and trust that I will be welcome with open arms. It is really a hit or miss sort of deal. I may click with a person that allows me into their world or I may not.  I never assume that the people I want to photograph are out to hurt me but it makes sense to take extra sets of eyes to help monitor the surroundings. 

We went directly to the tunnels without a guide. It was not hard to find what I was looking for but the next question becomes “ How smart is this to do alone being a female with expensive gear?”

I was hoping to have a support team and what I ended up with was just myself and a girlfriend. While she is a loving compassionate person, I’m not sure she could handle it if we went down a dark tunnel and ended up in harms way. As a photographer looking through a lense, I am the last person who is aware of the surroundings and thus I become very vulnerable. Now I not only have to be concerned about myself but for my assistant.  

We did introduce ourselves and were able to shoot a bit at the entrance of the tunnel but  my gut feeling was NOT to go inside yet. The homeless man we spoke with was drunk. It didn’t feel very wise to travel into a long dark tunnel where I already knew I we were outnumbered.  I could see and hear many other people back in the darkness and they made it clear they were not interested in our company.

I held out hope that before I left town I would be able to hook up with an outreach worker but that plan fell through. It will certainly take more time and energy before I can accomplish my goals of documenting the Vegas underground.

To do this work I spend countless hours building relationships with people and returning to work with the same people that I have built a trust with. It is hard to build relationships as I quickly breeze through a town but as I travel to new cities I will need to get used to working this way. This challenge is harder than I had anticipated but it is an issue I have to learn to flow with.

Doc says to keep shooting

I am doing several projects at the same time. Some personal projects bring in clients and help me earn my living. This homeless project doesn’t do that at all. Structure out of Chaos has always been a personal expense and a labor of love. At times I need to take a break from it to make money and pay bills but it always there in the background calling my name.

That is exactly what happened back in June.  I was milling around the streets of New Orleans shooting for something else.  One particular day I found myself in Jackson Square in front of St Louis Cathedral waiting on a person I needed to photograph.  From behind me I heard a man yelling, “ Hey Miss,  Hey Miss,  I want to talk to you!” I turned around and met Doc.

I can’t help but describe Doc as a stereotypical homeless man. He was drinking a draft beer and omitted an odor that made me take a step backwards every few minutes when the wind changed direction.  The smell was so bad that flies were actually swarming around his bottom.

He introduced himself and he was very interested in why I was taking photographs.  I explained my current project and also told him about this homeless documentary to see if he could give me leads. I assume there is nowhere I can photograph in New Orleans.  Encampments are not visible here probably due to all the abandoned property around town.

As I spoke with him a tourist came up and put a camera in our face for a quick shot. Apparently, if you are a tourist you need to take a snapshot of the local homeless people during your visit?  Doc took it in stride. I thought it was sort of rude. He says it happens all the time. I have learned to ask before  taking photos of homeless people even if it means I miss a good shot.  Hence, my homeless work becomes portraiture more than journalism.

Doc wanted to tell me about his life, as the beer appeared to be making him chatty. He said he served in Vietnam and that when he was there he had to kill babies. He started to point out children in the square and said that he had killed children that same age. “How can people live with themselves after that? ”Tears welled up in his eyes as he took another gulp of draft beer. He changed the subject briefly by telling me he thought I was pretty.

I don’t know if he is a veteran or just a delusional alcoholic. I have known drunks who have told war stories even though they had never been in the service. One thing was for sure, he was homeless and he had a story to tell about his daily survival on the streets. In spite of his stench, I couldn’t help but feel the kindness of his warm heart.

Everything happens for a reason right?  This is not who I came here to photograph but since I am here I will snap off a few frames ( with his permission) and pump him for information about how he lives. As it turned out he loved the attention of getting his portrait made and this was probably the reason he called me over.

Doc does NOT fit the profile of the people I photograph for my project.  The people in my documentary go to great lengths to make a home. Doc however lives on a park bench.

To discourage homelessness, the city of New Orleans removed park benches from parks, they lock many parks and the few places where the public can sit the bench is made so you can not lay down.  In Jackson Square where Doc lives the park benches have armrests. Since he can’t lay down he says he has trained himself to sleep sitting up. He has a folding parade chair to prop his feet and he stows his earthly belongings under the bench. To stay out of trouble he has to move his location around in the square but anyway you look at it, Jackson Square is his home.

“Doc, what do you do if it rains?”

“Well, you get wet.”

“Doesn’t that bother you?”

“Na, you get used to it.”

Doc is nothing like the people who build camps. They bath, they care about their little homes, they work jobs, they have bank accounts.  Doc did not impress me as someone who was too concerned about his own physical survival except for one thing, he was wearing bandages and pointed out that he was under a doctors care.

I decided that meeting him was a sign that I needed to keep shooting on my project. I was on the fence about whether to take a trip and invest even more finances into this documentary. After meeting Doc, I took it as a sign to keep pushing forward with this work. The invisible people of our society need to be seen and heard. As we educate ourselves perhaps we may inspire viable solutions to chronic homelessness such as improving the mental health system in the United States.

Building a new network

Las Vegas, Nevada Panhandlers with a sense of humor.

My goal is to travel around the United States to document the story of homeless encampments on a national scale. I was at ground zero in Miami when the epidemic began now there seems to be an a silent battle between people who need personal shelter and the places that do not want them to set down roots.

There are attempts all over the country to end homelessness and prevent people from squatting on public and private land. My mission is to show the stories taking place as homeless people try to organize themselves and systems seek to prevent the epidemic from getting worse. 

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While we watch stories we want to pick out the good guys from the bad guys but it is really hard to do.   The roles tend to reverse and flip around and keep us guessing. So my job is not to takes sides or to judge but to just document the issue.

In order to do this I need to shift the way I work.  In the past, I spent a huge amount of time creating relationships both in the homeless communities and with the social workers. Due to the limited time I can afford to stay in each city I am now relying on making good connections with social services. When I find a good homeless outreach team I can use them as bridge to get introduced. But in each city the relationship between the team and the communities change.

To test my ability to network I planned two trips with the goal of hitting two cities on each trip.  I spent about a month making phone calls and trying to set up alliances. In Miami doing this was rather easy.  Now even with experience I must say that the adventure felt like I was pulling people’s teeth.

The first trip was to Las Vegas, NV and Los Angeles, CA  The second trip was to Pittsburgh, PA and Wheeling, WV. In three of the cities after endless phone calls all I reached was deadends. Outreach services either didn’t know much about homeless squats or they were not interested in participating in exchange for photographs. One city wanted me to tell them where the camps were so that they could shut them down.   I’m not willing to reveal a source if it means the people I meet will end up losing their homes. I can’t become part of the story. I’m only there to document it.

I can and did go out on my own and could see exactly what I was looking to shoot but I was not willing to jump in and get deep into my work without at least one assistant. When my attention is through the camera I am no longer aware of my surroundings. Even if my lookout is a homeless person I know to ALWAYS have an extra set of eyes around. It may be that I can’t rely on homeless outreach services as a partner and may need to assemble my own team. I am still working out the kinks of how to do this and I have not exhausted all my ideas. Meanwhile in places like Las Vegas I spoke with endless people and gathered information for a return trip. 

The very best shooting experience of the month was in Los Angeles where I hope to return and work in more depth. While the city has a really bad image regarding the topic of coping with the homelessness, which we shall discuss at another time, the city’s outreach teams were excellent at communication and building relationships with the community.

Expect to see photos and hear stories about these adventures in future blog posts.

We all want power and luxuries

Everyday each and every one of us are solving problems and making choices.  We need to eat, have a safe place to sleep and a space to keep our stuff. We all want a place to call home. While you may take it for granted that you have these issues covered, not every does.

This documentary is about the people solving these basic issues and creating a space they call home. First you need a bed, place to keep your clothes, a source of water and a long list of necessities.  Once you get the basics taken care of the desire begins for the luxuries.

Homeless people are no different than the rest of the population. They want a little luxury in their living space too.  The first luxury on the list tends to be electricity. With that you can watch television, power a fan and run a whole host of appliances such as a hot plate to cook with.

Now how can a homeless person get electricity you might ask? When there is a will, there is a way. As far back as the 1990’s electricity showed up in shantytowns by way of streetlights. No, not just the light itself but it also the power it delivered in the form of electricity.

At the base of the streetlight there is an electrical box and wires. Now the juice in them was a 220 current and some homeless people were smart enough to rewire it down to 110 and create an outlet to plug things in. There were fires in the shantytowns so we may assume that occasionally the source may have been from a bad electrical issue.

In the photo is John. He was a quiet man I met in the 1990’s while the mental institutions had released all the patients to the streets of Miami. I always assumed he was a former patient since he lacked people skills and never talked much. He barely ever spoke. What he lacked in the art of communication he made up for in technical ability. He sat in his shanty by day and fixed broken appliances he found in the garbage.

Presently, when homeless camps want electricity they run small personal generators. There is an issue of not having the generators get stolen but that is something they need to cope with as part of daily survival. 

If you were facing dire circumstances such as homelessness what luxury would you want and how far would you go to manifest and maintain it?

We can't judge a book by the cover

I was working on an assignment and rushing to meet a deadline to upload images when I drove by this scene. A man, woman and young boy were in the intersection  of St Charles and Louisiana Avenue ( New Orleans, La ) begging for money. I’ve really been noticing the panhandlers recently. They are everywhere and they usually have the look of the people next door. One girl looked like a cheerleader who just came from a football game!

The driving force of my personal work has been always been “there by the grace of God go I.”  How would I handle the circumstances that other people find themselves in?

Regardless of my personal stress over deadlines I drove around the block and parked my car full of equipment within eyesight as I walked up on the mother and child. Normally I would sit and chat with people for a long time and hear their story but I didn’t have the time nor did they. There was work for both of us to be doing.

I could see the father turn away with shame as if he didn’t want me to take a picture. He doesn’t know me and he doesn’t know what the photos were about. I asked the mom if I could take a few shots and she relied “Yes.”

The boy smiled like a young prince and I clicked off four frames as the street car rolled into the last shot. The boy then turns to his mom and says “ Mom, does she know?”  The mom is still holding a sign saying they are a homeless family.  The mother responds to her son “ Yes.  She knows.”

Then she went her way and I went mine but I could not get them out of my mind. I could tell she was a good mom and had a deep connection with her child. I have no idea what her story was. I have learned from people in life that there is the story  people need to present and then there is a deeper reality that is carried within.

Whatever her personal truth is the facts are clear there was a man, woman and child panhandling for change in an intersection. The child will always remember these life events. 

Today families mostly of single mothers make up the fastest growing section of the homeless population. The lucky ones rent a hotel room if they can afford it. Or live in cars if they own one.  This woman was fortunate to have a male partner so there is another potential source of income. That makes her more blessed than most.

Single homeless mothers need to work to pay bills but the jobs may not pay enough to cover childcare expenses. There are programs that MIGHT help but getting into them is not that easy. Plus it does not necessarily feel safe to trust low cost childcare providers with the children you love.  Not everyone has a safety net of family and friends to help when times get tough. I'm sure this family had deep appreciation for the generosity of strangers that day.

Freewill for all

No picture for this post.  You will need to refer to the last entry for the image. It is Mardi Gras and the Superbowl was just here in New Orleans and I have had a long stream of house guests.  I found myself showing off my town and I took them to a spot I recently photographed. Guess who I ran into? The same homeless kid and the same girl from the last post sitting in the same spot. They were not looking as good as the last time I saw them.

His name is Joe.  Her name is Kat and no, he did not start the new job. He says he has applications out. I told him he inspired me and I wished that I would have inspired him and that I was going to be riding his case like a mother !  Poor kid has no idea how much I mean it.

The first thing I learned from this project is that people have freewill and as much as we want good things for them nothing will change until they want it too.  I would love to see this young guy do something great with his life but me wanting that for him has nothing to do with him wanting that for himself.  Unless he makes different choices, nothing in his world will change. I have to accept that.  Everyone has freewill to exercise anyway they wish. Our lives are simply a result of our own choices.

With the Superbowl in town last weekend I noticed our homeless population has completely disappeared with the exception of the young people around Covent house ( a shelter for homeless teens).  I have no idea how the homeless segment of the population has managed to disappear but I expect them to reappear soon.

Ma'am, what are you doing?

You might have noticed that I have taken a slight sabbatical from blogging. I had it in my mind that if I worked really hard on my project that I could bring it to completion in 2012.  Why is it that I plan and God laughs? I spent a lot of time, energy and money submitting proposals and marketing this project trying to get it to the next level.  Then all at once the rejections piled up fast and the disappointment was overwhelming. "This a great project" I am told but it is "not commercially viable." No, it is not a commercial venture at all.  If it was financially self supporting it would not be taking me twenty years to get it off the ground!

Ever since I started this documentary it was hard for me to start anything new. How can I split my attention when I can not get this one exhibition completed? I do not lack passion or conviction and I truly believe this story needs told and has an audience. So why is there such a blockage in getting it the attention it deserves?

A few months ago I sort of walked away from it for a while. I couldn't wrap my head around what I was doing wrong. I also came up with a new idea to photograph a different subject. It is something that is unrelated that appears to be commercially viable and I put my attention there. While out shooting for the new venture I heard a voice asking me what I was doing. I ignored them. "Ma'am, what are you doing?" They kept repeating the question until I turned around and responded "I'm just taking a few pictures."


 
When I turned around I  met the guy pictured above. I wish I can tell you I remember his name.  I do not.  I was absorbed with what I was shooting and wanted to avoid small talk, but this guy was not going to let me. With his beer in a brown paper bag he sat there like he had all the time in the world to be social. He made sure he pulled me right into a conversation whether I was interested or not. 

He explained that he has been through some hard times recently and made some really stupid mistakes. Yet on a  good note his life was turning around and that he was starting a new job on Monday. He is an iron worker and if the new job works out he will be back on his feet soon. Before long I was sharing my stories with him as well.  

I couldn't help but ask about his housing situation. He said he was living on the streets which given the area of town where we were it was no big surprise.   I pointed out to him that he looked like a young Brad Pitt. I told him "with those good looks and that pearly white perfect teeth smile there is nothing you couldn't be, do or have and yet you chose this? Wake up dude!" He is so cute even with the silly little tattoos and face piercing. His poor choices "must be driving his mama crazy with worry."  He laughed and agreed and reminded me this was all about to change and that hopefully he has learned his lesson. 

I told him about the Structure Out of Chaos project and he gave me a mutually beneficial pep talk. We both made each other promises to try harder and believe. You know, I am really glad I talked to him. The things he said seem to have had an effect on me and I hope I did the same for him. Neither one of us could encourage the other without hearing our own words and knowing we need to apply that wisdom to ourselves.  

Last weekend I sent out yet another proposal for Structure out of Chaos and plan to do more. I'll be back to blogging about the story again soon. I intend to get this project done.