The Homeless in Photos, The Faces of L.A.’s Skid Row

The photo essay that struck me as the most interesting was "The Faces of L.A.’s Skid Row: A Photo Essay" by Equal Voice News. What I thought the author(s) was trying to get at in this essay is how close the homeless actually are to us in our lives, and how much we attempt to ignore and cover up this problem. When I first saw this set of photos I was reminded of the movie Looper. This movie, which takes place in the future features a scene where the main character drives through the city and sees a whole homeless civilization on the streets of a huge city. There is a huge divide between the rich and poor in this movie and the poor practically own the streets, with no attempt to control or enforce laws on their civilization. In this movie it seems as if they simply gave up on the problem. There are several striking photos in this essay which I copied below. In one it shows tents pitched on the city sidewalk stretching down the street, with downtown LA looming in the background. All of these photos share a similarity in that the streets are deserted of foot traffic and dominated by homeless. It is a neighborhood in the middle of the city that no one dares to enter or attempt to open a business. It is like a slum in the middle of a developed city.

Credit: http://www.equalvoiceforfamilies.org/the-faces-of-l-a-s-skid-row-weekend-photo-essay/