The images photographers made may have been filled with emotions, and the prints may have been technically correct, but the photos were, basically, the subjective interpretation of their makers. Photographers frequently have only limited insight into the actual lives of the people being documented, and their images often reinforce the stereotypical views of the poor.

Southern California editorial and fine art photographer Jean Ferro wanted to go beyond that. Her idea was to let the homeless capture their own environment and document their own lives. In the process, she wanted to dispel the stereotypical myth that homeless people are constantly miserable because they lack material wealth. "I wanted to know what people would focus on in their lives, if they had the chance. I wanted to know how they saw themselves, how they saw us."



Ferro's project, "Through Our Own Eyes," was funded by a grant from the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department. The project consisted of distributing single-use, disposable cameras to a number of the city's homeless. That way, the homeless could photograph what they thought was important, without being filtered through the subjective interpretations of an outsider. Those individual images would then be compiled into a video presentation.

Initially, Ferro was going to distribute 100 24-exposure Kodak Funsaver cameras to people living on the streets. When some of the funding she was anticipating didn't come through, that number was cut to 34.

Participants for the project were selected at random. Old black men, Hispanics, bag ladies, adolescents were all recruited. Ferro was particularly fascinated by the teens that she found in the Hollywood area. They were generally bright, upbeat, kids. She couldn't quite believe they were street people.

As might be expected, some of the street people had barely any education, and their lives had varied little throughout the years. However, Ferro was surprised to find that some had college degrees and once-thriving businesses. When the businesses faltered, they stumbled and fell through society's safety net.

Some prospects seemed more eager to participate than others. Some had never used a camera before, and were apprehensive about doing so. Others didn't think they had anything interesting enough to shoot. Still, no one Ferro approached refused to participate. During the initial introduction, she would hand them a camera as well as a small booklet she had made up detailing the purpose of the project, some shooting possibilities and how to get the best technical results. She also gave each participant $5.00 in cash.

The little Funsaver single-use cameras Ferro passed out came loaded with Kodak Gold 400 print film and had a preset exposure of f/11 at 125. They included an electronic flash, to allow participants to shoot in just about any situation.

Ferro and her assistant Steven Whitsitt carried the same simple cameras she was handing out, to document the project as it evolved. Together, the two shot seven rolls of film. They also carried a Sony Walkman Professional, which, Ferro says, was the ideal audio recording equipment to capture the conversations, music and street noise, without being obtrusive.

Participants were asked to shoot up the roll and return to the same spot at the same time the next Monday, to drop off the camera. At that time, they would receive another $15. Four days later, Ferro met each photographer again to distribute his or her album of prints and pay an additional $10.

She had expected to lose some of the cameras. "I was told by other artists who had done projects with the homeless, that I stood the chance of losing a good 20 percent (of the cameras)." As it turned out, all cameras she handed out came back in. Only one man was delayed in getting the camera back in, and that was because he had been beaten during the night.

She conceded that the high percentage of returns may be due in part to the way she parceled out the pay for participating in the project. Money may have been a factor, Ferro says; it wasn't, however, the primary motivation for participation. "There were no restrictions on what people could shoot. If they shot the film, they would get the money." If money would have been the only reason for participation, she says, participants would have just shot up the entire roll, one frame right after another. "Nobody did that. Nobody just wasted the film."

In fact, when the film came back from processing, Ferro was amazed by the quality of images that had been shot, and the amount of thought some of the participants had put into their photography. They brought back strong visuals documenting their lifestyle and friends. '"There was so much more joy in the images than I had ever anticipated. I was very pleased with how they looked."

A shot of a long food line in the shadow of L. A. City Hall graphically illustrated the point that the homeless problem is exploding, right under the eyes of municipal officials, who seemingly are doing nothing about it. The images also focused on some of the violence of the streets. A coroner removing the blood-splattered body of a mugging victim graphically illustrates the dangers lurking in alleys and behind dumpster's. Odd angles and different perspectives accentuated the drama of some of the shots.

However, a major problem cropped up when the shots were processed. A scratch across all 41 rolls of the film gave Ferro some very anxious moments. She found a firm through Kodak, AFD in Hollywood, that could eliminate the scratches. Once the scratches were removed, everything had to be reprinted.

Once all the shots had been taken, Ferro, who generally makes her living handling editorial work, celebrity portraits and commercial assignments, held off accepting any assignments and spent several months listening to the taped dialogue and editing images.

To distinguish the images Ferro and her assistant shot from the images taken by the homeless, anything the two pros shot was converted to black and white. Anything the homeless shot was run in color.

Of the close to 1000 images taken, 400 were selected in the first edit. Almost 300 of those were selected to be included in the video. To reduce her own subjective analysis, or the possibility of judging the images on technical merits rather than content, she solicited input from the participating photographers.

"That way I would represent their view, and not be swayed by 'the professional picture' that we see 50 often in these environments." Once the prints were selected, Ferro had to have them all duped onto transparency film before they could be transferred to tape.

One of the unexpected difficulties was finding the optimum way of getting the images and audio onto the videotape. "Locating a video production facility to make those photographs come alive and exciting was an important task." Ferro looked at several production houses in L. A. that did motion-control but most of them worked off of photographic enlargements.

She finally came up with a firm that worked from slides. The Beverly Hills company came up with exactly the results she was looking for. '"Tim Kitz of Zona did a great job; he used a computerized four-axis motion control system that worked with 35mm transparencies," Ferro notes. "With that, I could have the perfect ratio of pushes, pulls and pans that I needed to create the documentary."

Other people who made major contributions to the project were co-producer/co director Julia J. Pierrepont III, Tim Counnihan from Popular Arts Entertainment's online editing facility, and Rita Provost, who composed the original music for the project.

The resulting 30-minute video makes a strong statement. Interesting transitions and creative editing add dynamic qualities to the images without destroying the impact of the individual photographs. The images are accompanied by music and voiceover narration by Ferro and the photographers.

Even though the video's collection of participant comments, narration, music and street noise bring the photos to life, it is the strength of the individual images that makes the project work. With little more training than the booklet Ferro compiled, this group of randomly selected street people, using the simplest equipment possible, came up with some remarkable shots of their world.

Ferro, who is interested in doing a similar project in New York, has an understandable pride in the L. A. project. There were also moments that were filled with pride for participants. True, the dangers of the streets put a hard edge on the people living there, but friendships form and interpersonal relationships develop. The one most excited about the results was a homeless lady named Ann, who so enjoyed the project she wanted to do it again. '"I watched her take her little photo book and put it under her arm. She crossed the street, walking tall."

Bon Eggers is a contributing editor with NewsWatch News Feature Service, covering computer applications,, technology, photography, electronic imaging and visual communications His articles have been carried by numerous newspapers and consumer magazines, as well as a wide range of trade, technical and specialty publications.