Front and Back cover image:‘‘Homeless Wonders’’Tiphanie Venard

Copyright © 2013 by Ana Salas

San Diego MOPA1649 El Prado, San Diego, CA 92101(619) 238-7559

All right reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the copy right owners. This book was made with all rights of images still belonging to original artists.

ISBN10: 1-56496-6047ISBN13: 916-7658-1285-1

US: $90.00CAN: $180.00

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List of Dates

San Diego, CA San Diego Museum of Photographic arts 12/01/13–12/15/13

Los Angeles, CA The Anneburg Space for Photography 12/20/13–01/20/13

San Francisco, CA The Frankel Gallery 01/25/14–02/25/13

Dallas, TX Photographs Do Not Bend 03/02/14–03/17/14

Austin TX Harry Ransom Center 03/22/14–04/02/14

Houston, TX Houston Center for Photography 04/07/14–04/22/13

Atlanta, GA Atlanta Photography Group 04/27/14–05/27/14

Tampa, FL Florida Museum of Photographic Arts 06/02/14–07/02/14

Venice, FL Clyde Butcher Venice Gallery 07/07/14–08/05/14

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Directory

Title Page 1

List of dates 2

Foreword 4

Exhibition photos 5

Essay 14

Checklist 22

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Foreword

There are many photographs in the world that we find great beauty in. And then there are the photographs that stir something so deeply inside us that they distress us, or even disquiet us so much that the images will be in our memory for a lifetime and then some. This exhibition is about those photographs.

Vagari should not be thought of as just a photography exhibition of vagabonds, but as an educational experience. The photographs are the main focus, and they are richly illustrated by their supported statistics released by the department of United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH). Looking at the pictorial documentation of the lives of these people and having read the statistics that they face in this life hopefully raises a revolutionary awareness, of the help they need to leave the streets.

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Vagari: verb (vagārī)

1: to roam or wander

2: Latin base of vagabond

Where did you sleep last night?

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On any given night in the U.S. there are an estimated 1,750,000 people who are homeless and sleep in the streets. 1,120,000 were homeless individuals and 630,000 people were homeless families. 7

Out of 1,120,000 individuals that are homeless, 1 in every 4 are men, and out of those homeless men 448,000 were veterans that were displacedafter coming back from war.

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Out of the 630,000 families 50% consist of 4 or more members, and only 25% of the families make it to a shelter at most, twice a week.

The space that a family shares in a shelter is smaller than an efficiency apartment. 9

The percent of homeless that have problems with alcohol, drug abuse, or mental illness is 66%. The percent of the adult homeless population that suffers from a severe mental illness and requires institutionalization is 28%.

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40% of homeless teens are runaways due to rejection from their families for coming out about their sexual orientation. 11

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The lines for most metropolitan city shelters often extend over four times the capacity of what the shelter can hold.

Essay

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I created this exhibition with one thing in mind: to raise awareness of homelessness in America. I didn’t want to just tell you about it, but to show you and educate everyone about the statistics that homeless people face.

Everyday that I happen to be in a long line for my well needed caffeine, and decide to eve’s drop in on the group of friends that have a very loud “convo”. There is always a mention that someone wants to help, or someone did help a starving child or community in a country that they can’t even pronounce. I’m not saying that the ones in need of help didn’t deserve it but I’m asking for people to reevaluate those exact actions.

America is known for being one

the most humanitarian countries in the world. However, how nice that is our reputation is shattered since we come in almost last when it comes to helping our own impoverished people. We are trying to lead in a matter that we can’t even take the time to try to fix in our own country. Personally I find that quite ridiculous.

While creating this exhibition I took some time to interview homeless men and women that I had met while giving them whatever change I had left in my pocket, and some left overs from lunch with friends. 5 out of 6 had told me that if they were just given one chance that it could change everything in their life, but they’ve pretty much given up on that. As I spoke to them I told them to never ever loose hope, because I never did and look at me now. I shared my story with them to give them hope for help, but I’ll never forget the promise I made Debbie; a homeless mother of 3.I promised Debbie that I would share my story because she feels that it can raise a revolution of helping hands for the homeless.

So here’s my story and hopefully more than enough reason to give these people a second chance.

All my life I’ve been lucky enough to have food, water, shelter, a shower and typical everyday things that most people take for granted, until one day my family and I end-ed up bankrupt and everything was taken away. The realization that we were homeless couldn’t have hit us any harder. After trying to wrap our heads around the fact that we had lost all of our valu-ables and money, we tried making a plan to find a shelter. After endlessly calling and walking from shelter to shelter to see if there were vacancies all of them were full. So we finally decided that we need to make a makeshift shack that can hold all Five of us. Which was easier said than done. After the worst night of sleep we all woke up and went to either school or work. Eventually both my parents lost their jobs and had to resort to taking care of us by asking for money from strangers.

This was how the next Two years of my life was spent. Until one day a lady named Monica and her hus-band Charles had watched me walked from the high school and into our little shack. They knocked on our door and talked to our parents and let us know that they wanted to give us a chance. They gave both of my parents jobs and even helped my sister to apply for college. I will never forget the opportunity that the both of them gave all of us. Out of the Two years we lived in a shack only One couple ever offered help. All my life I have tried to help as many people as I can, and I might not be able to help every single homeless person but I can at least bring a revolutionary awareness about what these people face everyday, so that maybe more than Two people are willing to help complete strangers.

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Statistics show that once a child enters a life on the streets by themselves or with siblings their life expectancy shortens to 3 months.

Life expectancy shortens to merely months due to malnourishment, starvation, dehydration and exposure to elements.

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7% of the entire population of the homeless are unaccompanied minors, which amounts to an outstanding 122,500 children are on the streets by themselves; lonely and afraid.

Hispanic, Asian, and Native Americans amount for 15% of the homeless population.

African Americans amount for 50% of the homeless population.

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Single women amount for 13% of the homeless population.

Single males amount for 44% of the homeless population.

White Americans amount for 35% of the homeless population.

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After living on the streets for almost Two years this is what our tiny shack looked like.

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CreditsJon Cromwell. . . . . . . Page 5‘‘Homeless Shelter In China-town’’

Michael Morgan. . . . . . Page 6‘‘Sleeping Homeless’’

Ben Pritchard. . . . . . Page 8‘‘Homeless Vet’’

Katie Falkenberg. . . . . Page 9‘‘A Lasting Toll’’

Rusty Parks. . . . . . . Page 10‘‘Homeless Mentally Ill’’

Leslie Lohman. . . . . . Page 11‘‘Queers In Exile’’

Unknown. . . . . . . . . Page 12‘‘Lina Shelter’’

Ana Salas. . . . . . . . Page 14Essay

Unknown. . . . . . . . . Page 16‘‘Starving Child Eating’’

Marco Espejo. . . . . . Page 17‘‘Homeless Child’’

Unknown. . . . . . . . . Page 18‘‘L.A. Homeless’’

Amos House. . . . . . . Page 20‘‘Homeless Vet’’