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.