Sacramento's Homeless "Tent City"

[teneighty23]

Nicely done man! these photos are really really great, i love stories like these, very interesting. we have a tent city in every larger city in Alberta, i diddn't think it was abnormal, the tent city in Edmonton Alberta even has a mayor, haha. oh Canada.

 

[stsinner]

For the most part they were mentally there. The younger girl seemed to have the characteristics of a drug user. Meth would be my guess. The older woman wasn't erratic like a current drug user, but had the features of a former user. Everyone else I talked to came off as stable people. The problem here in Sac is the shelters are pretty much fuul. And our rate of new homeless is up 15%.

What about that guy in 1 and 3? He looks a rough character.. What was he like?

Actually, I just went and look at the whole set again, and I love the feel you captured.. The sky is awesome in almost all of them. Numbers 3, 4 and 8 are really nice, eight, especially because of the way the lady is looking down in despair. The old man holding the Steer Reserve beer is an awesome pic.. It's like when you've got nothing else, why not have a beer...

 

[Hooligan Dan]

What about that guy in 1 and 3? He looks a rough character.. What was he like?

He was a great guy. When I went to stay the night there a couple days ago I went to him. He even had a couple guys set up my tent for me. He was quite nice and had a lot to say about the situation. But from talking to other people he's apparently one the guys you don't want to piss off. I seemed to be on his good side. i took him a print and he put it up. Said he wanted to get a frame. Said he was expecting the photos to be crap but loved it.

 

[a_spaceman]

these are outstanding.
congratulations, such an amazing job.
any link to a page where your report of the sleep over can be found?

 

[polymoog]

Nice work, and I also think they work well in B&W

 

[Hooligan Dan]

Okay, guys. This is my third and final edit(I think, haha) They look darker after being uploaded on photobucket than they do in print and in photoshop. Oh well. Also added another photo to the group. I lightened most of them up, bumped the contrast a bit to get more true white/sblacks, and did some dodging and burning to bring out some other details.

A side note, Walgreens' photo printing sucks, even for just a quick preview of prints I'll send away for. They blow out all the highlights completely in their prints. Never again will I use them.

 

[Chairman7w]

Excellent photos - really nice work. Very compelling images.

However....

I've lived in Sacramento since '75, and there has ALWAYS been a homeless population that lived down by the river. Always has, always will.

Some are druggies, some are drunks, some are just bums. I think the smallest portion of all are "regular" people who are on tough times.

Granted, there's some more now due to the economy, but it's nowhere near as bad as the media would make it seem. For whatever reason, they (the media) have an agenda to show how BAD the economy is, and how a tent city has "sprung up" in Sacramento cause we've all lost our jobs.

Not true.

(Note: I'm not dissing the folks that live there, or downplaying the plight of those that ARE victims of layoffs/the economy, just letting others that aren't from Northern California know that it's NOT like the media would make it seem.)

 

[Hooligan Dan]

Excellent photos - really nice work. Very compelling images.

However....

I've lived in Sacramento since '75, and there has ALWAYS been a homeless population that lived down by the river. Always has, always will.

Some are druggies, some are drunks, some are just bums. I think the smallest portion of all are "regular" people who are on tough times.

Granted, there's some more now due to the economy, but it's nowhere near as bad as the media would make it seem. For whatever reason, they (the media) have an agenda to show how BAD the economy is, and how a tent city has "sprung up" in Sacramento cause we've all lost our jobs.

Not true.

(Note: I'm not dissing the folks that live there, or downplaying the plight of those that ARE victims of layoffs/the economy, just letting others that aren't from Northern California know that it's NOT like the media would make it seem.)

Thanks for the comments on the photos.

But I didn't say it was a new thing like the media has led people to believe. I said right off that it's been there for a while. And having spent more time there than probably anyone else in the media, it really is pretty much as bad as the media makes it out to be. They do make it sound like most the people out there are recent additions when in reality most have been there a while, but they are accurate on how many people are there and the conditions in which they live.

 

[Chairman7w]

All gud Hooligan Dan, I didn't mean to make it sound like I was lumping you in with the media. I agree with what you wrote there, for sure.

We should hook up sometime and do a walk around photo shoot somewhere in NorCal, since you're local.

 

[tmitch]

Congratulations on an interesting set of pictures.
As well as liking the pictures, I am quite interested to know how you gained these people’s trust. You got to photograph people in and around their homes (tents). Did any money change hands, or what was your intro.
I’m not saying people with drug problems would always steal to feed their habit or any of the people there are of bad character. I might have been concerned for my personal and kit safety. Then again you can’t really get these type of images by being a scardy cat !
Mitch

 

[Hooligan Dan]

Congratulations on an interesting set of pictures.
As well as liking the pictures, I am quite interested to know how you gained these people’s trust. You got to photograph people in and around their homes (tents). Did any money change hands, or what was your intro.
I’m not saying people with drug problems would always steal to feed their habit or any of the people there are of bad character. I might have been concerned for my personal and kit safety. Then again you can’t really get these type of images by being a scardy cat !
Mitch

Haha. The only exchange made was a hand shake. I simply walked up and introduced myself and told them what i was doing. Only a couple didn't want to be in photos and few others just wanted to use pseudonyms if I identified them in the photos. I think I just gained their trust by openly trusting them. I was concerned for my safety, but like you said, you can't be a scaredy cat and get these shots. I think I mentioned above somewhere though that late one night I did put safety first and left after one guy said he could rob me if he wanted to and held a knife up to me.

 

[Chairman7w]

I just went back and looked at the pics again and damn... those are great. VERY striking. I would love to hear more about your techniques and equipment/settings.

 

[Hooligan Dan]

I just went back and looked at the pics again and damn... those are great. VERY striking. I would love to hear more about your techniques and equipment/settings.

Thank you, sir. They were taken on a nikon D300 with a nikon 17-55 f2.8. I carried nothing else on me other than a notepad because I didn't want to make a mugging even more enticing. Everything shot was with and iso between 800 and 1250 because I wanted to have a deep DoF. I normally shoot with a minimum aperture but I really wanted to show the detail of the tents and the layout of the land in the background of the photos.

Also, can you guys tell me how the shots look level wise? On my lcd they look good and on my parents lcd the look good. But on the CRTs at work they look way dark and I haven't gotten a chance to look on any other LCDs around the office.

 

[Hooligan Dan]

I think this is the last shot. I've gone through the photos several times trying to pick up any shots I might have looked over.
This small version has an artificial lens blur because it looks cool. but the hi-res/print version doesn't since we can't do that kind of stuff in the photoj world.

 

[Chairman7w]

Also, can you guys tell me how the shots look level wise? On my lcd they look good and on my parents lcd the look good. But on the CRTs at work they look way dark and I haven't gotten a chance to look on any other LCDs around the office.

I think they look great. A *touch* dark but it really helps convey the mood. They wouldn't be nearly as engaging if they were bright and... bright. Really nice contrast, too.