Homeless. Post your photographs.

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Homeless man in Santa Monica, 2004. He politely asked me for money, so I gave him a dollar. I then asked him for permission to take a photo, and he said yes. (Certo BeeBee 9x12cm plate camera, EI 100 Efke or Agfa film, guess-focused.)
 
Bob Michaels said:
Let me suggest that these are just people, not defined by where they live, just people.

Some people are male, some are female. Some people are black, some are white. Some are gay, some are straight. Some have homes, some don't.

This is Joe, I photographed him because he is male.
This is Joe. I photographed him because he is black.
This is Joe. I photographed him because he is gay.
The is Joe. I photographed him because he is homeless.


This is Steve, Queen, and Janet in Memphis. Does it make any difference they are homeless?
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Dear Bob,

Sums it up perfectly for me.

I also agree with others who say, "How do you know they are homeless?"

Cheers,

R.
 
Roger Hicks said:
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I also agree with others who say, "How do you know they are homeless?"
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Roger: great point! For the photo I posted recently of Steve, Queen, and Janet, I asked if Queen (the dog) was housebroken. I had a strong suspicion but was seeking confirmation for a potential photo caption. Steve replied with a laugh "Housebroken? We live in the street".
 
Bob Michaels said:
Roger: great point! For the photo I posted recently of Steve, Queen, and Janet, I asked if Queen (the dog) was housebroken. I had a strong suspicion but was seeking confirmation for a potential photo caption. Steve replied with a laugh "Housebroken? We live in the street".
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Yep, it is!

I wouldn't have know the shoeshine guy was homeless without asking him what his story was.

I don't know if this guy is homeless (obviously he was too far away to talk to and find out), but he's not doing well:


Inconsolable, Paris, September 29, 2007 by Maggie Osterberg, on Flickr
 
DrMcCoy said:
Not to demean your photo - but I think he may have been being a bit coy with you. There's an old shoe-shine grift that's really popular in New Orleans (mostly French Quarter I'd guess).

Basically they carry a little bottle of foamy soap or toothpaste and try to get it on your shoes when you're not looking. Then there's a little overly-vocal showmanship to get people to watch, then typically a little mild shaming as they convince you to let them fix that for you, then they say it'll be $1-5 for the shine typically bringing in anyone that you're with to make you feel guilty about not paying. I remember the first time I saw this I died laughing as this poor sap was getting conned into paying a Lincoln with his very bashful girlfriend standing next to him. Sometimes you can walk away without paying, but that's usually not a good idea because A) people around you don't think much of you at this point, and B) the really nasty ones will get violent and chase the person down the street threatening them. Then you get pointed out to the other ones.

More often than not, the shoes they 'shine' are tennis shoes, hiker shoes, boots - things that tourists wear and don't actually take a shine. I'm sure there's some legitimate shoe shining going on but that's the minority of what's going on there.
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Oh, I know that and the other grifts backwards and forwards and this guy wasn't running one.

There were loads of other guys, most of them running the "Nice shoes. I can tell you where you got those." con. Every time one of them said, "Nice shoes." I'd reply, "I ran that grift as a kid. Gimme a break!"
 
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