# Sacramento's Homeless "Tent City"



## Hooligan Dan

Some of you might have heard through Oprah, CNN, or one of the national news places that a tent city in Sacramento is growing rapidly. it's been there for a while, but it's increasing in occupants every day. So I went there today in hopes of finding a person from our town to do a story on for the paper. No luck there, but I did take some shots for myself anyway. I'm going to go back next week during the evening in hopes of getting some better light and more people. At noon the light wasn't great and there were only a few people at the camp. I'd also like to get a high shot of the whole camp(which is very spread out so the whole thing might not be possible). I think evening light would be better for that as well.

I totally messed up though. I took my first couple shots inside of a tent and cranked up my iso to 1250. And then forgot to take it back down for the rest of the shots. So they are pretty noisy, but luckily I had planned to do the whole series in b&w which hides the noise a bit.

I have stories and info on everyone, but I haven't gone as far to write yet. But a quick note on the guy sitting in the easy-chair and the bed; He calls himself the "Mayor of Tent City," because he has one of the bigger, well accommodated tents. Propane cooker, mini-dvd player, stereo, lounge chair, a twin sized bed with frame, file cabinets, and a bedside table.

As always, comments and criticism are welcome. 

Updated photos with new edit jobs that are more true to life.

*PHOTOS ON PAGE 2*


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## bhop

Nice shots.  I don't think the noise hurts you in black and white, in fact, I think it helps with the journalistic feel.


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## stsinner

Wow..  Nice look at something that I never thought I'd see in America..


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## AtlPikMan

I saw this on CNN and i too didnt think America would come to this. You captured it well. I look foward to viewing more pics and hearing the stories.


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## Hooligan Dan

Thank you, guys. I'm happy to hear you like them.


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## Hoser

There's a few places around here that the local homeless people hang out at, and I was thinking of doing the same thing you are. I was even going to go around and photograph the ones that don't gather with the others.

I'll start my own thread though. I'm not gonna take your spotlight. 

Nice pics.


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## pattavina

keep shooting this  you are capturing history, this is akin to only Hoovervills in the late 1920's. my grandfather spent a good portion of his childhood living in a tent in Connecticut during the depression in the 30's.


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## stsinner

One question I have, and I'm not being coy..  Are the people in these tent cities functioning at full mental capacity, or do you find that most of them are a little crazy?  I have been unemployed for several months-in fact, I've been laid off since July of last year, but my wife's job keeps us afloat and owning our own home, but even if this weren't the case, I can't think of any circumstances that would land me and my 4 children in a tent city..   I'd rely on family, I'd look into local shelters, etc..  I only ask this question because you posted the series that provoked the thought..  Are these normal, everyday people you might come across were you out and about?  Evidently you've talked to them, so I am genuinely curious..


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## Hooligan Dan

For the most part they were mentally there. The younger girl seemed to have the characteristics of a drug user. Meth would be my guess. The older woman wasn't erratic like a current drug user, but had the features of a former user. Everyone else I talked to came off as stable people. The problem here in Sac is the shelters are pretty much fuul. And our rate of new homeless is up 15%.


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## polymoog

Nice series. I remember seeing a cardboard city on the outskirts of Madrid once, quite a sobering view ...


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## BlueEyes01

I've seen this story on a few different news shows. On one, where they interviewed a husband & wife in their 40's, they had grown kids but did not want to strain their lives with their parents problems. I've also seen interviews where the people say that they were normal, middle class people one year ago and now they live in these cities that have popped up all over the U.S. One lady said she didnt want hand outs, she just wanted a job. I've also been told there are "car cities" popping up too for those fortunate enough to get out with their cars.

Its scarey, my husband is in constuction & been out of work since Sept, if I were to lose my job, we could easily see ourselves in a similar position. You just have to be thankful for everything you have & live life one day at a time.


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## stsinner

Hooligan Dan said:


> For the most part they were mentally there. The younger girl seemed to have the characteristics of a drug user. Meth would be my guess. The older woman wasn't erratic like a current drug user, but had the features of a former user. Everyone else I talked to came off as stable people. The problem here in Sac is the shelters are pretty much fuul. And our rate of new homeless is up 15%.



Very tragic.


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## Hooligan Dan

Thanks for all the kind words, folks. A little update. I will be going out and staying at the tent city for the weekend. Lot's of shots, first person narrative, and a little more authentic than those teens in church groups who stay the night in a store parking lot to "know what it's like to be homeless."

I'm excited and anxious.


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## Hooligan Dan

Update: I reedited all the older photos and added new ones.


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## LaFoto

This series is deeply impressive!
Really good work done here.

I have heard about the tent city and seen a report on it on our German TV the other day, too, but I must say that your photos here speak louder than the TV footage did. Though the interview with the person who had been willing to be interviewed for German TV was quite impressive, too. That person had no history of drug or any other kind of abuse AT ALL and was totally sane, other than being slightly depressed by what turn his life had taken... which is very understandable, I should say.


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## teneighty23

Nicely done man! these photos are really really great, i love stories like these, very interesting. we have a tent city in every larger city in Alberta, i diddn't think it was abnormal, the tent city in Edmonton Alberta even has a mayor, haha. oh Canada.


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## stsinner

Hooligan Dan said:


> For the most part they were mentally there. The younger girl seemed to have the characteristics of a drug user. Meth would be my guess. The older woman wasn't erratic like a current drug user, but had the features of a former user. Everyone else I talked to came off as stable people. The problem here in Sac is the shelters are pretty much fuul. And our rate of new homeless is up 15%.



What about that guy in 1 and 3?  He looks a rough character..  What was he like?

Actually, I just went and look at the whole set again, and I love the feel you captured.. The sky is awesome in almost all of them.  Numbers 3, 4 and 8 are really nice, eight, especially because of the way the lady is looking down in despair.  The old man holding the Steer Reserve beer is an awesome pic..  It's like when you've got nothing else, why not have a beer...


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## Hooligan Dan

stsinner said:


> What about that guy in 1 and 3?  He looks a rough character..  What was he like?



He was a great guy. When I went to stay the night there a couple days ago I went to him. He even had a couple guys set up my tent for me. He was quite nice and had a lot to say about the situation. But from talking to other people he's apparently one the guys you don't want to piss off. I seemed to be on his good side. i took him a print and he put it up. Said he wanted to get a frame. Said he was expecting the photos to be crap but loved it.


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## a_spaceman

these are outstanding.
congratulations, such an amazing job.
any link to a page where your report of the sleep over can be found?


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## polymoog

Nice work, and I also think they work well in B&W


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## Hooligan Dan

Okay, guys. This is my third and final edit(I think, haha) They look darker after being uploaded on photobucket than they do in print and in photoshop. Oh well. Also added another photo to the group. I lightened most of them up, bumped the contrast a bit to get more true white/sblacks, and did some dodging and burning to bring out some other details.

A side note, Walgreens' photo printing sucks, even for just a quick preview of prints I'll send away for. They blow out all the highlights completely in their prints. Never again will I use them.


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## Chairman7w

Excellent photos - really nice work.  Very compelling images.

However....

I've lived in Sacramento since '75, and there has ALWAYS been a homeless population that lived down by the river.  Always has, always will.  

Some are druggies, some are drunks, some are just bums.  I think the smallest portion of all are "regular" people who are on tough times.  

Granted, there's some more now due to the economy, but it's nowhere near as bad as the media would make it seem.  For whatever reason, they (the media) have an agenda to show how BAD the economy is, and how a tent city has "sprung up" in Sacramento cause we've all lost our jobs.

Not true.  

(Note: I'm not dissing the folks that live there, or downplaying the plight of those that ARE victims of layoffs/the economy, just letting others that aren't from Northern California know that it's NOT like the media would make it seem.)


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## Hooligan Dan

Chairman7w said:


> Excellent photos - really nice work.  Very compelling images.
> 
> However....
> 
> I've lived in Sacramento since '75, and there has ALWAYS been a homeless population that lived down by the river.  Always has, always will.
> 
> Some are druggies, some are drunks, some are just bums.  I think the smallest portion of all are "regular" people who are on tough times.
> 
> Granted, there's some more now due to the economy, but it's nowhere near as bad as the media would make it seem.  For whatever reason, they (the media) have an agenda to show how BAD the economy is, and how a tent city has "sprung up" in Sacramento cause we've all lost our jobs.
> 
> Not true.
> 
> (Note: I'm not dissing the folks that live there, or downplaying the plight of those that ARE victims of layoffs/the economy, just letting others that aren't from Northern California know that it's NOT like the media would make it seem.)



Thanks for the comments on the photos.

But I didn't say it was a new thing like the media has led people to believe. I said right off that it's been there for a while. And having spent more time there than probably anyone else in the media, it really is pretty much as bad as the media makes it out to be. They do make it sound like most the people out there are recent additions when in reality most have been there a while, but they are accurate on how many people are there and the conditions in which they live.


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## Chairman7w

All gud Hooligan Dan, I didn't mean to make it sound like I was lumping you in with the media.  I agree with what you wrote there, for sure.

We should hook up sometime and do a walk around photo shoot somewhere in NorCal, since you're local.


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## tmitch

Congratulations on an interesting set of pictures.
As well as liking the pictures, I am quite interested to know how you gained these peoples trust. You got to photograph people in and around their homes (tents). Did any money change hands, or what was your intro.
Im not saying people with drug problems would always steal to feed their habit or any of the people there are of bad character. I might have been concerned for my personal and kit safety. Then again you cant really get these type of images by being a scardy cat !
Mitch


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## Hooligan Dan

tmitch said:


> Congratulations on an interesting set of pictures.
> As well as liking the pictures, I am quite interested to know how you gained these peoples trust. You got to photograph people in and around their homes (tents). Did any money change hands, or what was your intro.
> Im not saying people with drug problems would always steal to feed their habit or any of the people there are of bad character. I might have been concerned for my personal and kit safety. Then again you cant really get these type of images by being a scardy cat !
> Mitch



Haha. The only exchange made was a hand shake. I simply walked up and introduced myself and told them what i was doing. Only a couple didn't want to be in photos and few others just wanted to use pseudonyms if I identified them in the photos. I think I just gained their trust by openly trusting them. I was concerned for my safety, but like you said, you can't be a scaredy cat and get these shots. I think I mentioned above somewhere though that late one night I did put safety first and left after one guy said he could rob me if he wanted to and held a knife up to me.


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## Chairman7w

I just went back and looked at the pics again and damn...  those are great.  VERY striking.  I would love to hear more about your techniques and equipment/settings.


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## Hooligan Dan

Chairman7w said:


> I just went back and looked at the pics again and damn...  those are great.  VERY striking.  I would love to hear more about your techniques and equipment/settings.




Thank you, sir. They were taken on a nikon D300 with a nikon 17-55 f2.8. I carried nothing else on me other than a notepad because I didn't want to make a mugging even more enticing.   Everything shot was with and iso between 800 and 1250 because I wanted to have a deep DoF. I normally shoot with a minimum aperture but I really wanted to show the detail of the tents and the layout of the land in the background of the photos.

Also, can you guys tell me how the shots look level wise? On my lcd they look good and on my parents lcd the look good. But on the CRTs at work they look way dark and I haven't gotten a chance to look on any other LCDs around the office.


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## Hooligan Dan

I think this is the last shot. I've gone through the photos several times trying to pick up any shots I might have looked over.
This small version has an artificial lens blur because it looks cool. but the hi-res/print version doesn't since we can't do that kind of stuff in the photoj world.


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## Chairman7w

Hooligan Dan said:


> Also, can you guys tell me how the shots look level wise? On my lcd they look good and on my parents lcd the look good. But on the CRTs at work they look way dark and I haven't gotten a chance to look on any other LCDs around the office.


 
I think they look great.  A *touch* dark but it really helps convey the mood.  They wouldn't be nearly as engaging if they were bright and... bright.  Really nice contrast, too.


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## Hooligan Dan

Does that look better, Chairman? I lightened them just a tad and adjusted the contrast accordingly. Mind you I only adjusted the small internet versions. The print versions I've kept the darker versions and will adjust those as I need to when I print.


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## Al-Wazeer

you have some beautiful shots there

good job


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## Chiller

Wow!!. Very impressive series of photos.  I could call this one of the best I have ever seen on TPF!!
  Your eye, for emotion, and the way you have used the backgrounds and location to get the mood across  is brilliant. Congrats on these.  Very well done. :thumbup::thumbup:


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## Hooligan Dan

Al-Wazeer said:


> you have some beautiful shots there
> 
> good job





Chiller said:


> Wow!!. Very impressive series of photos.  I could call this one of the best I have ever seen on TPF!!
> Your eye, for emotion, and the way you have used the backgrounds and location to get the mood across  is brilliant. Congrats on these.  Very well done. :thumbup::thumbup:



Thank you, guys. Very much. I do really appreciate all the positive input. I worked hard on this one.


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## Slaphead

I have to say that it one of the best series of photographs I've seen.

Very impressed


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## Mesoam

i heard about this on NPR a few weeks ago, truly a sate state. Powerful shots!


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## Montana

Wow, a truely fantastic series!  Although the subject matter is saddening, I feel that I could look at them again and again.  I would be proud if those were my shots!  

Derrick

Again~ outstanding work!


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## abraxas

You've very nice shots in there. A great series.  Personally, I'd rather cause controversy with honest work as I think you have, and let them say whatever they say.  No point in responding. At least they're talking about it.


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## Photographergirl04

Wow!! Awesome shots =D


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## newrmdmike

hahaha, what did america come too? -

i see tents (pretty decent looking), well clothed people, a dvd player(or laptop), headphones, bikes etc.  dogs on LEASHES.  You know you live in a great nation when our most impoverished people are still on par with some nations standards.

not to sound like i have no compassion, but everytime i'm in the field i have it worse than that.  (except for the mental health and or drug issues)


nice work, 

by the way, heres a link you might like for the next time someone points a knife in your direction  California Concealed Carry (CCW) 

pjs everywhere have been drawn to poverty porn so watch out. rarely do any of them present anything worthwile with the images they create, i've been guilty of it too . . . its why i stopped persuing photo journalism . . . Aside from lots of views and comments what does it accomplish?  i hope you are able to put something together with these images that can tell people whats happening there and encourages some course of action rather than give a glimpse into tent city.  (jounalistic ethics slipping? dunno . . . but i photographed landmine victims in cambodia and couldn't bring myself to publish them, because i knew it wasn't doing enough)

if they seem mentally sound and without substance abuse issues then why do you think they are there? did you ask any of them?  it seems to me that most people have a support system of friends or family or church or government to help them in our nation until they can get on their feet, why don't they? are they persueing anything different in life? or are they content to squat there? so then is it really just a group of people who don't conform to our societies norms? or a failure of our social structure to take them under our wing?  i think it says more about americans as individuals than our economy or government that we let these things happen, where were the churches? the families? the friends?

woo, rant over, hope it made sense.  again, nice shots, they got me thinking!  perhaps you have an artical you'll write to accompany them?


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## Hooligan Dan

The article ran yesterday. Since we don't consider Sacramento local(even though it's only 30 minutes away) they ran a feature on me going to tent city rather than a story on tent city itself. A  short first person account of the situation and the kind or people there with a photo essay. Kinda odd really; a newspaper doing a feature on it's own employee. 







But don't worry. I'm not pursuing photojournalism. I've already been working for the same newspaper since 2003. I'm pretty much in it now rather than pursuing it. 

But I can tell you why so many photojs are attracted to poverty. If you really work in the field, unless you are a big name, then you spend virtually all your time shooting meaningless meetings, ceremonies, high school sports and so on. So to build a portfolio to hopefully get you on to better things you have to shoot meaningful and challenging subject. For most people, they can't hope over to the nearest warzone so they move into poverty. It's a good stettping stone to move up. Most don't do well with it or don't like it and move on to other things. Others are good at it and further their  photoj career. 

 My next project is a months long essay following a local low income family living on the edge. 

It's only poverty porn when it's done in a the same manner like the way every photographer does the "water Drop" shot; when they do it just to do it  because everyone else does it and do a lot of it with no passion for it. You'll notice the poverty photogs who are successful do nothing but poverty and war almost exclusively. For me that's when it's no longer in the boundaries of "porn." 

Every single day I have to shoot those pointless meetings, high school soccer games, ribbon cuttings, and the local lady who makes quits. But my passions lie in medical and poverty photography. To me it's not porn and to my readers it's not meaningless. So I think I'll be fine staying with poverty in the end. 

I don't mean to make it sound like I'm attacking you and I know you are just adding your 2 cents from your own experiences, but telling me to watch out because many photojs fall into "poverty porn" and one shouldn't do it if it's not making a difference would be kinda like me going into the thread of a passionate  landscape photog here and telling them that it's a waste of time because they'll never be as good as Ansel Adams. See where I'm coming from?

Thanks for all the positive input, everybody.


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## LuckySo-n-So

For those who wish to read the article.
Awesome work Dan!

The face of Tent City


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## newrmdmike

Hooligan Dan said:


> The article ran yesterday. Since we don't consider Sacramento local(even though it's only 30 minutes away) they ran a feature on me going to tent city rather than a story on tent city itself. A  short first person account of the situation and the kind or people there with a photo essay. Kinda odd really; a newspaper doing a feature on it's own employee.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> But don't worry. I'm not pursuing photojournalism. I've already been working for the same newspaper since 2003. I'm pretty much in it now rather than pursuing it.
> 
> But I can tell you why so many photojs are attracted to poverty. If you really work in the field, unless you are a big name, then you spend virtually all your time shooting meaningless meetings, ceremonies, high school sports and so on. So to build a portfolio to hopefully get you on to better things you have to shoot meaningful and challenging subject. For most people, they can't hope over to the nearest warzone so they move into poverty. It's a good stettping stone to move up. Most don't do well with it or don't like it and move on to other things. Others are good at it and further their  photoj career.
> 
> My next project is a months long essay following a local low income family living on the edge.
> 
> It's only poverty porn when it's done in a the same manner like the way every photographer does the "water Drop" shot; when they do it just to do it  because everyone else does it and do a lot of it with no passion for it. You'll notice the poverty photogs who are successful do nothing but poverty and war almost exclusively. For me that's when it's no longer in the boundaries of "porn."
> 
> Every single day I have to shoot those pointless meetings, high school soccer games, ribbon cuttings, and the local lady who makes quits. But my passions lie in medical and poverty photography. To me it's not porn and to my readers it's not meaningless. So I think I'll be fine staying with poverty in the end.
> 
> I don't mean to make it sound like I'm attacking you and I know you are just adding your 2 cents from your own experiences, but telling me to watch out because many photojs fall into "poverty porn" and one shouldn't do it if it's not making a difference would be kinda like me going into the thread of a passionate  landscape photog here and telling them that it's a waste of time because they'll never be as good as Ansel Adams. See where I'm coming from?
> 
> Thanks for all the positive input, everybody.



sweet! they look like they printed pretty well?! to your standard?  also, didn't mean to make it sound like you were still persuing pj, haah.  also, wouldn't have taken it for an attack, and i apologize if i sounded abrasive, military life does that to you.

thanks for posting the article, i really enjoyed seeing the final product. it made all the difference for me to have the account with the images. the conclusions i would have drawn i don't think would have been as intended.


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## Hooligan Dan

newrmdmike said:


> sweet! they look like they printed pretty well?! to your standard?  also, didn't mean to make it sound like you were still persuing pj, haah.  also, wouldn't have taken it for an attack, and i apologize if i sounded abrasive, military life does that to you.
> 
> thanks for posting the article, i really enjoyed seeing the final product. it made all the difference for me to have the account with the images. the conclusions i would have drawn i don't think would have been as intended.



Thank you. They printed pretty well. Our presses aren't the best for b&w images. They can't handle the broad tonal range. So I had to brighten the shots up a lot and I lost the deep tones in the sky. If you look at the slideshow on my paper's site and compare them to the shots in this thread, you can see the huge difference in the tones. Those shots weren't suppose to be used in the slideshow too, but out computer guy is not the sharpest knife.


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