It is an early and cold morning on the streets of Downtown Los Angeles. I cannot help but to ask myself as to why there are so many homeless and desperate souls on these streets? My eye catches a man, alone against the wall in a box, attempting to get shelter from the elements. I pull over and approach him. He has nothing except for the portable cardboard box he is living in. I sit next to him and we talk.

The sun hits his face allowing him to feel the warmth of the day. “How are you” I ask? “Well, I’m not really good….a little rough today” he tells me. “I’m in a lot of pain right now. I’m diabetic, I have high blood pressure and full-blown AIDS. I’ve been on the streets ever since I was released from prison in July of last year” he adds.

It cared less as to what he was in prison for, but realized that when released from prison, many have nowhere to go, just like this native Angeleno who was born here.

I ask him as to what he is grateful for just for today? “I can’t think of anything” he replies. I look into his eyes, and understand. What can he be grateful for at this moment? He is asked what if anything He might be in need of? His response, “Something for the pain”….

29 Dec This entry was published on December 29, 2014 at 4:39 pm. It’s filed under Portraits, Uncategorized and tagged Black and White, Blanket, Cardboard, Homeless, Hope, Hungry, Los Angeles, Portrait, Sad, Shelter, Sick, Sun. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.