U.S. Capitol Homeless

This has been a fine series of images. This is probably my favorite so far. Excellent composition. The sleeping man and the boot book-ending the man works very well to capture the scene.

Do you get much reaction from men and women you photograph in these? If so, what reaction? Does it make you at all uncomfortable to photograph them in their down and out circumstances?

Hey Harley thank you for the nice comments it means a lot. For your questions about reactions from the subjects, the answer is, it depends. There is a lot of mental illness and drug addiction among the homeless and of course now we are seeing a lot more veterans from 10 years of war. They can be friendly one day and very aggressive and hostile the next. I’m working with one small camera and I think that helps to make me less of an intrusion. The little Leica is also really really quiet. I’ve been a documentary photojournalist for over 30 years so it takes a lot to make me uncomfortable. Does it affect me? Yes of course I’m human and this is a sad topic. Its also a pretty hopeless topic. I’ve seen good come from my work, its rare of course when that happens but it is the best reward knowing you made people see and caused them into action. Larry Burrows and Eddy Adams had as much to do with drawing the Vietnam War to close as anyone with their photos.

Again great work, you really capture messages in your photography!!