Photos by Richard

Today our assignment is to think about what kind of picture we going to take based on the guy we interview a few class back. I have attacked this assignment in many different ways and nothing seems to work. I have spent hours of my time around Boston trying to take good photos of the homeless. I didn’t want to take photos of graffiti or anything like that because I feel like being homeless is deeper than that. In this assignment I was thinking about taking a picture with a key in the doors, a key in door to represent a since of value to the guy that group 4 interviews. Having a place one can go to is a way of being free.

The second photo I have posted a picture with a key in the door with a bottle of Heinekens on the floor. I took some picture of a bathroom because when my guy had nowhere to go he would spend hours in the bathroom catching some rest. I wanted to fit as much thing as possible into 2 large trash bags and see how much can I carry with me. At first they seem light then later on I had to remove some more items to make the bags lighter. I can’t imagine carry all my stuff with me for a day never minds a few decades. well The guy that I interview  carry his this with him for about 45 years.

Photos by Shay

Working with homeless it’s not as simple as I thought. There are many things that people don’t know about them, how they live, how they eat  and many other questions that each one of them. Differences make up the homeless people but in a certain way they are all the same. I’m learning a lot from this subject either researching online or going out there on the streets trying to look for them. By taking pictures and looking for places where they live or where they spend their time, what they do it’s the hardest thing, not because it’s hard to find the places but because there is always someone looking at me, and wondering what I’m doing, or when you find a homeless they will give me a dirty look.

            Behind the building I work there is a shelter, and every day in the afternoon I see a lot of homeless walking down the streets and standings in front of the store. So I decided to go there to try to take some pictures, but what I found interesting is I thought it would be easy to take pictures of them all in one place, but I got scared most of them were drunk and smoking and  giving me a dirty look. So I decided to ask them if it is possible to take a photo of them for my project instead of just taking a photo without their permission. The guys said it was ok so I end it up taking a lot of pictures but the women didn’t want to do it and walked away. One of them told me about his life, I felt bad he lost his family in a car accident and started drinking and end up losing everything he had. He was drunk and before he talked to me I was thinking bad things about him, but right after I felt bad.

            Walking at back bay I found a lot of dirt places which brought me to think that homeless stayed there, so I took pictures of that too. On my way to back bay station I always see at least one person sitting or laying down in the entrance, so I figured I would take a picture of that also.

            I’m founding really hard to relate the pictures I’m taking with Victor’s story. Since the hardest part of him being homeless was having to deal with his health problem, everything was really inside of his head. Hopefully I will be able to find more places that I can show his life.

Photos by Tony

Photography and the Human Condition

April 11, 2011

            For this particular project I will be taking photographs to in way represent what homelessness is like. We had the great opportunity to meet up with former or in the process of rehabilitating unhoused individuals. I will be taking pictures of the process an unhoused individual goes through as they become homeless and throughout their homelessness and also the process of them stepping up and getting back up on their feet. Victor’s story is very interesting. Unlike many other unhoused individual, victor became homeless due to a rare disease. He suffers from paranoia and depression.

He is unable to trust people because of it affecting him. I plan on capturing photographs that would represent a person with doubt. Maybe edit my photos so that in a way they look kind of blurry to represent the doubt he has when interacting with people. He also mentioned that he had a family before being diagnosed and becoming homeless. He started going for drugs and alcohol to get away from society, I will be taking photos of liquor stores and abandon building because he mentioned he would hang out in front of liquor stores and would sleep in abandon buildings. He was never much of a begger like other unhoused individuals, he would stand in line at shelters and donation places like the salvation army, so I think I would capture more pictures of places like that more than taking picture of homeless people on the streets begging for money because in his case he would try and get away from people so he would hide himself. I think best way of representing his story would be taking pictures of dark allies and hiding places.

 He talked a lot about his son, so I plan on taking photos of a father and a son to show the appreciation he has for his son. Now that he is in the process of becoming housed, he does not want to rush into his and his son’s relationship so a photo that represents that would be very intriguing

Photos by Will

Photography

4/13/11

                                                Response to Photos

            The photo was actually hard to take because I took a lot of things into consideration. It is extremely hard to capture an experience, or multiple experiences through one photo. This was also difficult because I learned a lot through the interview so I didn’t know which experience to try to symbolize. I felt like there are so many things I can capture so I was in a tight spot. The first thing I tried to take note of was how to best capture the emotion of the homeless guy`s story.

            I felt as if I couldn’t capture the emotion of the setting in the daytime, so I waited until it was dark out to make the photo. The angle and the whole arrangement of the photo was thought because I knew I would have to get some type of lighting to make the subject of my photo look somewhat visible.

            At first I didn’t know what I would want to capture because I already had a location in mind. There was a small door near my building that belongs to the Housing department. Besides that door there is a staircase, and on the floor there is a lot of trash. I feel like this symbolizes homelessness the best. The dirtiness would symbolize all the mistakes that a homeless person makes in life and the door is the gateway to the new life that they were meant to live.

Photos by Hadiatou

SS 245-Photography and the Human Condition

Instructor: Ms. Greco

April 14, 2011

                                                        Progress on Photos

Our project on homelessness is a little bit challenging than I expected. The most challenging part of this project for me is trying to find something to photograph that relates to the subject. Trying to combining the speaks idea and my has been also a challenge. So I just been focusing on taking a photos of unhoused people instead of trying to capture the concept of the speakers story; But the photos are not as good as I would want them to be at this point. My photos on un housed people are taking intentionally with expressive emotion. I have not been taking a direct approach because I feel like the photo is not coming out as strong as I would want it to be. So I’ve changed up my approach from direct to behind or sideway my subject.

Some of my successes so far, I would have to say is the setting because it allows me to me to tell a story through my images and send massages to my views. I have also been trying to look out for what I learned from the beginning of this course. Before I take a photo of anything, I always make sure I’m aware of the my lighting, framing, shapes and lines that surrounding my subject. This helps photographs come out strong and have texture.

One of my goals by the end of this assignment is to get a good image of something tangible that an unhoused person holds closely to their heart. Like for example a picture of a love one, or any type of jewels. My second goal is to try to combine the feed back that I got from speakers, the ideas from their stories, and off course with my ideas as well.

Photos by James

SS 245

Photography

April 12, 2011

                There were quite some challenges for capturing anything that is related to the subject; homelessness. I tried to combine what Tony, the speaker from last week who was open to tell us his story on homelessness, into photographs. Pretty much, Tony was raised by a father who ruled the household with his “iron-fist”, as Tony would describe it. He then became rebellious and decided to go the other way that his father wants him to be. He was traveler and dealt with drug usage and drug dealing (he dealt with cocaine). Not only he was dealing but he was his own favorite customer as well. Because of the things he was doing, he tend to travel from state to state to avoid all the trouble he has gone through. He told us he got shot before as well at stabbed. What got him going through was his kids and God Himself (even though he went on and off about his religious beliefs).

                The hard part of this project is capturing the concept of his story such as a photograph representing the on-and-off beliefs of God and his usage of cocaine. SO I came up with a scene I saw around in Boston. It was an alley way and it look pretty sketchy. My first thought was that people would think alleyways are a typical place where homeless people would sleep in. I also thought that it’s where people can deal their drugs. I also have another picture of railroad tracks since Tony was a traveler and the train tracks represent his traveling during his story.

                I am still trying to come up with photography ideas for this story and perhaps mixing it with other ideas of homelessness with multiple meanings, such as the photo of the alleyway that I took. Otherwise, as challenging as this project is, I’m enjoying the challenge to better my ideas for this project.

Photos by Chauncy

SS245

Photography and the Human Condition

            During the time where we had to find photos that would best capture the whole concept of homelessness, I always knew where I wanted to go to get what I wanted. It seems that when you walk around you always see homeless people everywhere. Today was just not that day for some strange reason. It was really cool outside so it seems as if they all found a new place to settle them. I really didn’t want to take photos of the people, but I wanted to take pictures of the place to show the point of view of how a person with no home would see things. Every place that I usually walk by and see people things was displaced and wasn’t there. It was kind of harder than I made it seem. Things like this would take more time and thought in finding what I want people to see from this photo. I then just started to take snap shoots of random places that I would think a person would find shelter to sleep. There was once a group of homeless people in front of the seven eleven in Copley square, but I didn’t really want to capture a photo with people in it. I did get a couple of shoots that I could use and play with to show the contrast of the photo. There were problems with people getting in my photos and I would find myself taking shots over and over again. Everything wasn’t going my way. I just remembered what the speaker we had to say and just thought about things he told us. We really don’t know who is really homeless, but we had to capture something that could give off the impression of a not as obvious picture of a homeless person or bed.

Response to Speakers by Chauncy

The experience that I took from the speakers was very powerful. I know that every person has their own reason in why they are homeless. Dan the speaker who was assign to our group told us about how he grew up and help his mom out and was called a momma boy it. He would always get into trouble doing stupid things with his friends. He would later get caught and was put into a federal prison. He would later get out and meet a woman that would change his life. They got married and had to kids. Times were good until they had to separate. He started to drugs to cope with the pain. Over time when a person starts to drugs he will do anything and everything to get it. He was homeless for about 13yrs until losing his toe he came to realization what more would it take from to lose in order to stop what his was doing. He later got help and has been living in a home for a few months now. I found his story to be very insightful and I understood a lot of what he wa going through. I have a person who I know who is going through the same kind of thing. Many homeless people don’t make it a choice to become homeless, it sometimes just happens. There are others who could found a way tp stop it but just didn’t want to. There are a lot of people in the world that when you look at them that they are homeless. It could be cause of their parents. I feel that I have taken a lot in from the speaker Dan and I would like to learn more and spend a day with him to see what goes on in his world.

Response to Speakers by Richard

In group 4 we interviewed a guy name Dan, he is now 65 years old and currently living in Boston Ma. He is not homeless now, Dan spend most of his life un housed rather the being housed. Un housed means that a person is homeless. Being homeless is like being at the bottom of the barrel in society. Dan spends most of his time walking around and trying to gather money to support his habits and to get food. With Dan he was not a social person so he spent most of his days avoiding the other people that are around him. Dan had a wife but he is now divorced and living alone.

Homeless shelters that Dan stayed at were horrible, at least the way he explained it was. He had to live in a place with over 70 different men. Shelters use a lottery system to pick an individual’s to stay for the night. Hundreds of homeless people go to shelters to find a place to sleep also Homeless people are classified as unhoused people. The reason why they call them unhoused is because the only different between them and us is that they don’t have a house to go to.  Dan is from Roxbury ma as a teenager he explains how much responsibility he had growing up. He explains how his mother was always pregnant he was the oldest stuck doing most of the work.  So when Dan got older he started hanging out in downtown older people and did what those older people did so he turned to heavy drugs.

Dan struggled with a substance abuse problem, years after years he watches himself drag himself in deeper with the drugs. Because he was lacking money he got into stealing from other people and breaking and entering into homes. He lived a life of being in and out of jail He would sober up, live in jail and relapse all over again. In Dan’s eyes his future was  living in jail and being homeless so he always got involved with the same crowd. Dan knows when he was doing well he would be clean. Different watch every day was a sign that he was doing bad. Family never said no to Dan but it always came with a price, Dan hated that. Family will always say I will help you if? Because there was always a if so he never really ask them for help.

Homeless by Edwin

 Being homeless is like not having any security around you. It is a mix of feelings of loneliness, fear, and insecurity to many. For years homelessness has been a problem here. In the city, you can find either children in boxes with their mother or an old man with a dirty cup begging for change with hope of survival. There have been numerous reasons why many have ended up homeless as well which sometimes they cannot prevent.

     Natural disasters like hurricanes or tsunamis have become one of the main problems and causes of homelessness. People have lost their homes and sometimes even loved ones because of these natural disasters. Another cause is domestic violence that has led many to running away from home with no other place to go. Health insurance is also another leading cause because many have put their own health 1st before bills which is very understanding but is a very difficult decision to make. Not being able to afford houses as well is a huge problem which can lead to the loss of their house. These situations can happen to anybody no matter how secure you believe you are.

     These statistics prove that anyone, even a millionaire and with lawyers can become homeless very easily. It is a very hard issue to overcome for many and it is an issue that is feared by many. But thankfully there are shelters and programs out there that are willing to take this issue into their hands and give hope to those who have lost so much.

Response to Speakers by Edwin

On Tuesday, a few people from a shelter volunteered to come to our class to be interviewed by the students of photography class. What I had expected to hear was basically the lives of these people as they grew up homeless, how they got to that situation, and how they came out of it. I knew it was going to be an interesting day.

     On Tuesday, three people came along with an extra person who came a little bit after as well as two people who work for the shelter. They introduced themselves and explained what they do for these people. Basically no matter what the situation may be, they will not deny any help to anybody coming in for help. It was very interesting to hear some of the background of the shelter. After awhile, the students were put into groups of four with one of the four volunteers and discussed the topic about being homeless by sharing experiences, comments and questions. For our group it became very interesting.

     The individual that we were having a conversation with shared his experience. It was about someone changing and picking the “easy” life which then led him to trouble. After awhile his children was born, he started to become a different person and began top see things differently leading to a great job and a great father-son/daughter relationship. I found it interesting because the one thing that caused him to start making bad decisions was his experience of his mother and father divorced, living with his step-father who he felt hatred for. Then once he found drugs as “easy money” he chose the path of destruction that lead him to homelessness. But there was one thing that he said that I absolutely loved. He said that after awhile of realizing what he was doing wrong, he said “When I take one step, God is taking two steps with me.”

     Simply put it was a great experience for everyone I'm sure and hearing these different opinions as well as experiences was very interesting.

Response to Speakers by Shay

When I thought about homeless people before I used to think how is it possible this is America there is job everywhere, but the truth is we never know what is behind those people on the street, we judge before even knowing how they got in this situation.

Today in class felt like crying, I was so touched by hearing the speaker's story, I wanted to know more and more, I wanted to ask him all the questions I wanted to be part of his life for a second, go back in the past and help him out. I wanted to get up and hear each one of them telling about their lives. After realizing that being homeless is not being lazy and don’t want to work but there is a lot behind those people that don’t have a house.

I can’t even imagine myself going through this, but I know it can happen to anyone. It’s so sad to think people don’t have a place to sleep, to get warm when it’s cold, a place to take a bath, and most of the time they don’t have what to eat what to drink, and what really made me concern is at some point they don’t have a friend, or family to stand up for them and help them out, give them another chance to start over. Most of them that got help were by some stranger that offered to help.

I think the society should help more and more and stop thinking bad about homeless and start helping those people and give them a chance to live again.

Response to Speakers by Feng

 Today some volunteers  visited our school and some of them were homeless before. They told us real stories of being homeless. A man came to our group and we interviewed him. He was grown up in a Christian household with strict and religious parents. He became rebellious and got addictive to drug which kept him away from saving money to afford housing so he became homeless. He bounced around from shelter to shelter or even on the streets because being drug addictive kept him away from a good shelter. Later he was referred to a detox program by a friend who had already been going through it. Another story was about young woman.  She had a miserable childhood: she was sexually abused by her stepfather. Later when she was 13 she run away to New York and met a man who became her pimp. The man made her addictive to heroin. After went through all these misfortune she became homeless and started to sleep under Bridges. Thanks to Pine Street Inn and what program has done for her, she has changed her life completely now. She is part of the homelessness speakers' Bureau and tells people about her experience. I feel I am so lucky to have all the things I have now and no longer take things for granted after hearing these stories. We often want to have more money, bigger house and better car. Actually we should cherish what we have now especially our families and friends. Lots of homeless people went through things that we could not imagine. We should try to help them instead of ignoring them.

Response to Speakers by Hadiatou

SS 245-Photography and the Human Condition

Instructor: Ms. Greco

April 7, 2011

Today a group of former unhouse people came by to tell us about their lives in the street. first my group and I met an amazing woman named Sheral. because Sheral couldn't be with us, one of the staffs that works at the organization decided to read up her story. Sheral Begin telling us the sexual abuse that she endure by her stepfather where she lived with him. while this was going on at home, one of her neighbors asked Sheral’s mother if Sheral can baby-sit for them while they went to work, but that was just a cover up so Sheral can go over his house so they can have sex. when her mother found out about the affair, Sheral was grounded by her mother that summer. at the age of thirteen she ran away to New York and met a man which became her pimp. she traveled all over the state with him selling sex, and making money her man/pimp and he also got her addicted to heroine . after being a prostitute for so long she decided to move back to Boston living in with friends. she was allow to stay with them as long as she supported their habits. As ironic as this might sound to many of you, Sheral started to get tire of supporting other peoples drug habits and moved out. she started to sleep under Bridges. thanks to pine street and what program has done for her she has changed her life completely around and she's trying to build a relationship with her three a strange sons.

Sheral is now sixty three years old she part of the faces of homelessness speakers' Bureau. she goes around speaking events and shares days of being homeless and how she got to that point. I think that’s important for Sheral to tell story to the world because she she's educating other what it means to be un house and she's also teaching us not to give up on people with addiction.

one of the things that stock with me when i left, when one of the former unhouse speaker said even if you see a bagger with nice shoes or clothes, don't jump to conclusion thinking that they bought those things themselves because they might of got that as donation from the shelter.

I'm very excited with my progress on with our project on Faces of Homelessness Speakers. Thanks to the speakers sharing their stories, the way that I use to view homeless people have change. First in foremost I don refer some living in the street as homeless, I simply recognize the as unhoused people. Before my knowledge on the leading causes of homelessness I though the biggest leading cause was substance abuse. Because of my ignorance I use to judge them and worst of all I use to say the most ignorant things about them. There were times that I didn't even spare them some change because I convince myself that they would use that money to buy drugs. Now I truly believe the reason why a lot of individual and families is unhouse is because not having some place to call their own, to simply call home. Not having that front door key so you can open and shut out the world and have your own privacy and space. Which most of us are fortunate enough to have a home to call ours.

My old ways of thinking inspired me to photograph un house people sleeping on the streets or just standing around the train station. Even with the weather getting nicer I've not been lucky on getting the images out of my head into a photo. One of the speakers from last Tuesday gave me a great idea on taking photos of tangible things that unhouse people own.