FINAL PORTRAITS - plus explanation

San Diego –street portrait photography

While recently in San Diego California I photographed a number of people in the street – some homeless and others who I assumed had homes.

I am often asked how do I approach such people. Yes I do get nervous and I do have many knock backs but when the confidence is there I do like the results.

For the homeless people I generally say ‘may I take your photo please?’; they usually say ‘why?’ to which I reply; ‘I’m Australian and the picture of the huge number of homeless in the US is not generally known in Australia’. As long as the photos are not going into the newspaper they don’t really mind. Some ask for a payment & I give them a donation for allowing me to photograph them. I think that’s fair.

For those others who do not appear homeless, I ask: ‘May I take your photo please?’; again ‘why?’ or just ‘No thanks’. For those who said ‘why’, in the US I said I was Australian & I was collecting photos of Americans who ’looked’ American. I was never asked for payment.

I don’t photograph without permission.

I went to several areas. The first was Chicano Park built under the pylons of the lead up to a bridge in central San Diego where I photographed two local residents. These men spend a lot of time in Chicano Park. They are both descendants of mixed blood of Mexicans and Native Americans brought into the area as cheap labour. One of the men – an artist Salvador Torres was instrumental in the creation of Chicano street art in the park back in the early 1970s. He also repairs any damage or aging to the artwork. The art depicts the struggle of the Chicano people.

In the Mission Bay area I visited a park in which many homeless live. There have been estimates that over 200 homeless live in this area and another 400 only a few miles away. In the park one or several of them live under concrete picnic tables and chairs. They generally have a bicycle if they need to go anywhere which they walk beside and push with all their worldly belongings attached to it. There are two types of homeless there – those who have been homeless for many years and those who became homeless with this recent financial crisis. So most of these have been in the park for two years. They lost everything and often their families as well. Most have come from the construction industry which is almost non-existent in the States at present. Others from luxury industries which folded overnight. The long term homeless have a very weathered appearance. I understand from them that there are charity groups who bring them food & they are given bus tickets although I saw very few busses.

I also photographed at the Mission Bay Beach area where there is a continual fun fair as it is a holiday tourist area. There were many different sorts of people wondering around.