Child in poverty, San Francisco, June 2007
It’s an in-between day. Stalled on the way somewhere. A strange intermission. Tomorrow will better judge.
A lady pushes a stroller by as I hardly notice. Except for a glimpse of golden locks.
They’re at the intersection when I arrive. I glance down and the child in the stroller looks up. I smile. He says “hello” and smiles back. The woman doesn’t notice; she continues along. And I go another way.
But they really don’t seem off to an evening stroll, as they enter the park. I peer back as they approach a group of figures barely visible under the darkness of a tree.
The woman pulls something from her jacket, which she passes to the others.
I return from another direction, and I’m stared down as I approach. There is the lady and a man; neither stranger to the elements. She’s black; he’s white. There are two older children and one baby in a second stroller. And there is the child I met before. He is three.
The children are opening colorful bags of candy that the lady brought back. It seems to be dinner. The child hands me his bag.
The two youngest are the couple’s children together. The family lives in a shelter and sometimes beneath the stars. They’ll be in the shelter tonight. It opens at 9 PM.
The child is “chance.”
“Like the movie?” I ask. “Peter sellers?”
The father smiles. “No. She’s 32 and I’m 42 and this here is my last chance at a life.”
Thank-you very much Tom Stone, Amazing work you’re doing, Well Done!
Best Wishes To Everybody And Good Luck!
Haunting. It is difficult to look at these photos and not see your own humanity reflected back at you in the eyes, not knowing that luck, a few particular people, a few particular choices here and there are all that separate you. Strip away the clothes, the hair, the skin, the body and what you have is another human soul reminding you that we are, collectively, one and the same.
Carla- Exactly. EXACTLY.
Jack, Tom: this is a wonderful photo essay that I’m very proud to see here on GMP. Thanks for sharing the images and stories with us.
Thanks Todd. I am proud of this piece. Tom Stone is the embodiment of the GMP ethos, and troll bait or not a nerve gets struck, and my involvement gets called into question. I get the choice to do something or not. That is the highest call for an artist like Tom. Awareness is the first step. Then the discussion, and action, or not. GMP exists for those very reasons, and I can only hope to ask, discuss, and answer those questions in myself through that awareness. The world is not always beautiful, but there is beauty in the ugliest… Read more »
Thanks for this piece. “To my thinking, the original human trauma is our separation. We are too close not to need each other; and too far to trust each other. We rely on dubious senses and clever devices to interact; but we are alone in our thoughts. Lonely, insecure and uncertain; we pair, we group, we associate. We try to belong and we seek to exclude. We form bonds by geography, religion, economy and otherwise. But it is all precarious. We come together and we drive apart.” Love it.
It’s very sad that all of these homeless men are neglected by society and men make up the vast majority of homeless neglected by government programs.
What are good men doing about it besides taking pictures?
I hope I’m not feeding the trolls here, but on the off chance your question is genuine, Bad Man, I’ll tell you what I do:
I raise money for homeless NGOs and charities locally, participate in events like Cardboard Box City (see my article about that here on GMP), help host homeless families, and help steer homeless people into shelters and treatment programs, and teach my children to do the same, and I pray for homeless people everywhere.
Tell us about what you do.