i photograph people who skirt the edges of things; people whose connection to the broader flow is murky or obscured. mistaken as more, less or different than they are; they aren’t really seen and don’t really belong. that’s everyone sometimes; but some more often. i try to establish a line for a moment. i hope to connect. and i see the most beautiful and the most heartbreaking things.
TomStoneGallery.comJune 2007 Newsletter
June 21, 2007 MarinScope Article
faith & grace
homeless woman
san francisco, february 2006
(poverty series) indelible
homeless girl with doll
san francisco, ca, april 2006
(street kid series)
homeless kat from marin. kat has a cart and has been rapidly culling the trash cans for recycling. she has a doll around her neck; its arms in a constant embrace.
i find myself staring. she reminds me of someone.
homeless robin from sonoma sitting in a doorway on the outskirts of hayes valley; she has two grown sons still there (one 22 and one 35). she doesn't see them much; but they speak often.
she recently got caught in the cross fire of a gang shooting. one bullet went through her arm. the other went through her groin and is lodged near her spine.
she says it's only by god's grace that she survived.
she lives on her SSI benefits; she chooses to live on the street rather than give it all over for housing.
death rides tonight
young drifter ash – shortened name of a death god
san francisco, may 2006
(street kid series) weathered
old homeless man in black hat by white wall
san francisco, april 2006
(poverty series)
homeless roger from oahu in front of a white construction wall. roger is pushing a cart and with a large red parasol.
i told him i spenta part of my childhood on oahu and he told me of the street he grew up on.
young homeless drifter ash. he says he was named for an ancient death god or such and goes by ash for short. he grew up as a ward of the state. says his parents were "fuckers." he got the star tattoo on his face when he was 13.
says he's a "traveler." has been hopping freight trains for years. he's off to louisiana tonight.
but now a moment alone with a cigarette and a bottle. then to party with his friends. then there's a freight train he'll hop in oakland with his crew.
camping
homeless girl camped out in park
san francisco, may 2006
(street kid series) on the road
boy with ear lobe gauges panhandling
san francisco, april 2006
(street kid series)
...gabriel from portland sitting on the sidewalk panhandling. traveling the west coast. when he goes back to portland,figures he'll get "some sorta mill job"
homeless kaylyn from dallas sitting on sidewalk panhandling. she was thrown out of school and out of home when she was 15.
she'd been on her own until last year when, at 17, she got engaged to a boy she met in san diego. they're living together now in a tent in the park.
reduced
homeless woman
san francisco, november 2006
(street kid series) disturbance
homeless woman
san francisco, june 2006
(poverty series)
homeless lorraine from the bay area. she's about 65. says she used to live in shelters but she speaks her mind and people don't like that. says she's better off on her own.
says she has her child with her though; a baby. well, not with her now; says she's hidden it so it'll be safe.
homeless rebecca from detroit. rebecca doesn't fit. as though she's not where she's supposed to be. i see her as i pass. she is almost ghostly. she sways and bends like the only tree on a hill; unprotected. she seems resigned to a losing battle.
she is panhandling as i pass. or she is praying or mourning. but she is not seen. i turn the corner and watch her for a moment. she grimaces her mouth as though swallowing some new resignation and moves away from the season's passing throng; in my direction, but floating by. i seem to snap a trance when i say hello.
she's been homeless since 1998. she sleeps sometimes in shelters. but says there's not enough beds for women. the men have many more. she went to the shelter this afternoon to put her name in for a bed this evening. there's a lottery, and she didn't get one.
says she has no family and no children. she's the only one. but she has one girlfriend who got a place from the city finally after years. says she's trying to stay there with her friend tonight, if she can make up the guest fee. she's about a third of the way. it's been cold and she clearly doesn't want to be on the street tonight.
she was an accountant not so long back. she had a good job. she worked for kgo. but in '98, they were downsizing her group and she was let go. she thought she'd get another job easy. but she never did. they all wanted someone younger. and now she's 54, and says it's too late for her.
in the glare
homeless man in the sun
san francisco, august 2006
(poverty series) luckless
homeless man
san francisco, june 2006
(poverty series)
homeless alan from cincinnati. says, "i guess i'm just down on my luck."
homeless "bagger" sitting on the sidewalk panhandling and selling oakland athletics discount cards. he has some trouble speaking; but is not shy for it. he lives in berkeley and is in sf to pick up his ssi check.
drifter
young homeless drifter
san francisco, august 2006
(street kid series) streetwise
homeless boy smoking
san francisco, march 2006
(street kid series)
homeless brad from illinois sitting on the sidewalk panhandling.
young homeless drifter michael from portland. he's sitting on the sidewalk resting with some friends. i see him as i pass on my way to a cafe. as i return, he has his head in his hands.
i stop to chat. they've just arrived; though he's passed through before. i mention seeing lots of kids in town from portland. he says there's lots in portland from sf too. he asks where i'm from. "kinda hawaii i guess; but mexico and la too." he says he'd like to visit someplace like hawaii but agrees sf's not so bad.
running out of time
young homeless man
san francisco, may 2006
(street kid series) street sixteen
young homeless man in tenderloin
san francisco, july 2006
(street kid series)
..homeless wayland from san mateo sitting in doorway on sidewalk. has been on the street in sf since he was 16.
homeless brian from atlanta; people call him "freelove." brian has been on the street since '98. as a child he lived mostly with his mother; and moved from state to state quite frequently.
brian believes that the soul is not part of the body; rather that the body is part of the soul. he believes that his larger soul is extremely fragmented and possesses many incarnations; some simultaneous. he has memories from his other souls and his other bodies. he sometimes refers to them as ghosts; sometimes as dreams.
he describes memories as a child of how his ghosts were used for physical acts by various family members and how his soul was sold to strangers.
he describes how at 16 he was being used by a woman he didn't know. or it was a dream. or it was his ghost. but then he knew her and it was his mother. and she told him he was committing a sin and how could he be so sinful. and she tried to "crush" him as she tried to make him repent his sin.
he believes that people you know can be connected to your seven chakras and thus be a part of you. his "root" chakra is a chinese girl he knew in '95 named ann. he met her in sacramento when he was living with his mother. he thought she was a gift and he didn't know how he had gotten so lucky. ann was there visiting a friend or such. she worked in a dotcom in sunnyvale.
some time later, he went after her to sunnyvale to try and find her. he found her, but she would only see him in secret once a week and would make him call her daily in case she wanted to see him the following day. he was confused by her behavior and missed a day. he never saw her again. he felt her loss like a blow to the "solar plexus" and thus associates her with his "root" chakra. she is the love of his life.
he says people are bad to him and people use him. he says, about 2 years back, his mother surgically removed his heart and sold it; and had him committed to a mental institution. he says his heart was his hero and he can no longer be a hero without that heart. but he says he had a spare "less modern" heart as a backup.
he says things keep getting worse for him. he says he sold his soul to the devil so as to stop his slide. he say he's given himself to evil so that when others do evil to him, it can be no worse. he doesn't believe in actually doing evil to others, however. he says he visits hell frequently. he says that satan is his mistress; but that he's trying to reform "her" so that there will be no more evil in the world.
but he's not sure he can. and he feels he's gone too far. he says he needs help soon. he hopes that someone will give him a way out. but he doesn't believe there's much time. he says soon he won't be able to turn back. but for now, there's still time.
hard knock leif
drifter leif with face tattoo in tenderloin
san francisco, may 2006
(poverty series) stained
boy with face tattoo panhandling
san francisco, march 2006
(street kid series)
justin from oregon sitting on sidewalk. talking up passersby for cash as i come by. has had the maori-like face tattoo for a bit more than a year, i believe.
homeless man from texas. he's off to los angeles as soon as he can scrape together the cash. got his tattoo done years ago at a place called the mystic mark.
when i first saw him, he was checking through some leaves by the curb. he has debris on his face.
his name is leif; pronounced "life."
forgiveness
homeless woman in tenderloin
san francisco, april 2006
(poverty series) something higher
man panhandling
san francisco, january 2006
(poverty series)
cordell from st. louis panhandling on outskirts of hayes valley.
homeless theresa sitting on sidewalk; born in indianapolis and raised in thousand oaks, ca.
theresa will talk and then start singing a song (somewhere over the rainbow, candle in the wind, ...). or she'll recite a poem about jesus and faith. or she'll heckle a passerby.
theresa's father was a soldier who cheated on his wife such that his daughter (theresa) was born with gonorrhea. she says she was born "dead". she was blind and her legs were deformed. while the blindess was short lived, her legs are still in bad shape despite years in leg braces.
when theresa was about 6, her mother was shot in the head in a public bathroom for money.
"do you know what love is?" she asked
"what is love?"
"love is forgiveness" she responded
longshoreman lingering
former longshoreman selling streetsheets on haight street
san francisco, december 2005
(poverty series) beloved
hungry woman in wig asking for food money
san francisco, april 2006
(poverty series)
woman trying to get money for food downtown. she is wearing a white wig.
james trying to sell streetsheets. streetsheets are used as an alternative to panhandling. james is a former sf port longshoreman.