Journal Home Page Home Studio Library Contact

The typical situation is one of just survival – caught up in the cycle of survival, where there is no sense of tomorrow. They don't think about tomorrow. They almost have no perception of tomorrow.

They tend to be treated badly by the public, by police. And I think the health issues – the fact that they use these solvents, which obviously are not good for them. The fact that they don't have access to medical care, so they end up in very poor physical condition.

Tbe fact that they have no access to education a lot of the time means that there is no cognitive development that happens, and unless there is an intervention, their life could end up just on the downward spiral – continual downward spiral – to the point where they are just totally wasted.

They get into fights. They stab each other. They get run over by cars. They get beaten up. They get burned. It's gruesome – some of the things that – and yeah, kids get killed. I mean, they got shot by the public while they are committing crimes and stuff.

So, they are always in danger of those things. In the past seven years now, perhaps a dozen of them that I have known personally have been killed. And that can be quite traumatic for people who are working closely with them.

Return to Photo Essay