Moments of Peace

On the day of this photograph, Tony had been homeless for several days.


Tony is originally from Orlando, FL; he attended Jackson Sr. High School in Miami, where he ran track and played running back in football. He was in the National Guard, stationed in Kentucky. He has three adult children, 30, 29, & 28. He has a son, who is a truck driver, and two daughters. One is studying law at Florida A&M, and the other is in med school at the University of Miami. Tony's wife died of AIDS several years ago.

He was living with his brother, who kicked him out of his home because Tony would not share his food stamps with him. He had just returned from Atlanta to attend his father's funeral when this occurred. He said that although he's now homeless, "It's better than when I was living with my brother. He drinks too much and his girlfriend is a prostitute. She would turn tricks in the house. I didn't want to be around that. So, now I'm out here."

His plan is to go to the Salvation Army to seek help, "and once I get back on my feet, I going to move with some family up in Atlanta."

In the meantime, he will spend the late afternoons in Bayfront Park. "I like to come here when it cools off to watch the boats and look at the water. It's very relaxing. It's nice."

The Eyes of a Generation

A native North Carolinian, Lowery has lived in Miami for 35 years. He is an importer/exporter of goods such as grains, wheat, and beans and sells items like toilette paper and pineapples from a vacant gas station lot. He has three adult children with careers as an accountant, a corporate attorney, and an auditor. He graduated from the University of Western Missouri with a degree in Political Science. He also went to law school but did not finish, and if not for all that he wishes to accomplish, he would have long since returned.

Lowery has much to say about the communities, wealth, poverty, and education in Miami. "I have a lot of ideas about how to stimulate the economic growth in the poor communities and how to create jobs. I have an idea for a [clean energy] toilette paper factory in Liberty City that would provide jobs for hundreds." Unfortunately, "You have to have money in order to be listened to in Miami and because of that, the city's not about to listen to me." He added, "Oh, they hold their council meetings and play the part," but in the end, he sees no progress. "People in Miami are concerned with where their house is, or what model Bentley they drive, or how big their boat is, so it's no wonder so many neighborhoods in Miami suffer from poverty - the city just doesn't care…Miami's never gonna change." Yet he tries to make a difference every day.

"The reason I'm saying all this to you is so you can pass this message along and do something to try to make a change, too. You're a member of a younger generation, so you have to lead by example, because the eyes of the younger generations are on you - your generation - on all of us."

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Guadalupe de vacaciones

In a mauve-colored building, whose paint was peeling back to the wood frame, I saw Guadalupe leaning against the doorway of her apartment, in a vibrant fuchsia, flower-patterned dress. Through the open doorway, I caught a glimpse of a silver, 65 inch, wide screen television behind her.

Guadalupe fiddled with a white envelope in her hand, listening to the conversation of her neighbors, content in her silence. She speaks no English, but those around her, watching over her, share a bit about her with me. Guadalupe is from Honduras. She lives in this apartment six months a year, on vacation. She spends the hot season of Miami in the cooler weather of Honduras, for the other six months of the year.

Guadalupe has a son, and the apartment belongs to her daughter, who is not there. I chatted with a neighbor and the building manager, as Guadalupe stood silently in her doorway, a slight suggestion of a smile surfacing on her face from time to time. She continued to fiddle with the envelope in her hand, not knowing most of what we were saying, yet not seeming to care. She was content. She was on vacation.

Melodies at Browdis Place

He sits outside a neighborhood furniture shop, Browdis Place (owned by his friend, Browdis), playing his keyboard, singing lounge-type melodies to the traffic skirting by and helping out whenever there are customers. Walter is from New Jersey (where he received an associate's degree in music) and has been living in Miami for 20 years. He spoke about his daughter with a father's pride and love, a daughter who graduated from Rutgers University with a criminal justice degree.

"I play the music in front of the store because it attracts the customers." He's laid-back, comfortable, parked in front of his keyboard, work gloves shoved in his back pocket, singing and playing, seeming only to use the music pages as reference or inspiration.

He's there all the time, singing and playing, or simply helping out at Browdis Place.

Janice

South Beach, February 2010


The day was warming up in South Beach. It was a pleasant 70 degrees with blue skies. I saw her from a distance, sitting on the grass across from the beach, taking off a sweater. I thought to myself: perhaps she is waiting for someone, or perhaps she is a local, taking a break from her day. As I walked nearer to her, she turned to lay on her belly, completely unaware that I had spotted her from a distance. As I approached, I wondered if I would be disturbing her, but I said hello and asked her name. She looked up at me and simply said, "Janice." I asked her where she was from - she did not answer. I asked if I could take her picture - "Yes." She lifted herself to her elbows to reveal her breasts, fallen out of her low-cut swimsuit top.

She reached in her bag then looked down at her exposed chest. I turned away to give her privacy. A moment later I turned around, and she was standing next to me. I discovered what she was rummaging for: flip flops, proper beach attire. I asked again where she was from - Miami? Miami Beach? She said something, but I did not understand. Then she told me about her bathing suit. She told me she liked them low-cut and modeled it for me, holding back her button-up, striped shirt so that I could have a better look.

She asked where I wanted to take her photo, and I asked if we could talk as well. She agreed but said to take the photo first and then talk. Her breast was still out of her low-cut, black swimsuit, which seemed a bit small for her. I gestured that she cover herself, noticing the pedestrians as they passed by. She looked down and pulled her shirt closed, but quickly let it go again.

She suggested that we go over to the phone booth, so she could pose for me there and that she could act like she was talking on the phone. She wanted to model - this was South Beach. I reminded her to cover herself again, looking around to see another pedestrian or two approaching. She pulled her shirt closed then simply let it go again, so I mimed that she should tuck her breast into her swimsuit. She did, then followed with a fuchsia-colored flower to accessorize, commenting that it was pretty. The flower perfectly matched her nail-polish, and her fingernails were perfectly painted, immaculately trimmed. I noticed she had smooth, clear skin.

She picked up the phone and made her pose. I took her picture - twice. She asked me if I got my shot, and I told her I did. She came over to me, looked at my camera, and told me it was nice then patted me on the arm to say goodbye. We never got to have that conversation.

The Bright Side Lights My Way

Design District Neighborhood, April 2010


Foxy is a licensed cosmetologist, who cannot find work in any salon: "These people don't want it done the right way anymore. They want it quick…"


From the moment I announced myself, she jumped into conversation with me. (Carmen, a neighbor, tells Foxy to tell me about her house being on a slant): "She don't need me to tell her that. She can see that herself when she looks at it."

Foxy is from Jamaica. (How long since she's been there?) "Not long enough!" She laughs and jokes that they don't want her back. She's Americanized.

(She tells me things, private things.) "I had everything done to me. I had a mastectomy, a hysterectomy…"

She paces back and forth on her tiny front porch, telling me about the owner who won't fix the problems with these homes: "He only cares about money."

She paces as she tells me about the building inspector who placates them with words, yet does nothing. She tells me about not being able to get food stamps because she refuses to declare herself as homeless - she has a roof, after all, even if it's attached to a house that's sinking on one side. She continues to pace, waving her arms in irritation, seeming to be relieved to get it all off her chest to someone who isn't a neighbor, who isn't the owner, who isn't a building inspector.

"Cars drive by and the people just see that our houses are shabby. They just see what they look like on the outside, but they don't see what they look like on the inside. They don't see that they're clean on the inside. I keep my house clean. We all - all of us on this street - keep our homes clean on the inside. But they can't see that when they drive by." She took me on a tour of her tiny home to prove it.

Her 3.5 room house had no hallway. Each room was connected to the next by a central doorway, with the bedroom in the middle, and the kitchen in the back. She had a large, cozy-looking, king-sized bed adorned with a massive bed frame, a thick comforter, and decorative pillows: "Let me tell you something. I'm 61 years old, and I've always had a comfortable bed. You always have to have a comfortable bed, no matter where you live. You need a comfortable place to rest your body."

(She sleeps in her bed alone.) "I live alone because I don't want a man to take advantage of me. I had a mastectomy (she tells me again, clinching her breasts). That's also why I don't have a man. I don't want them to feel sorry for me."

Foxy does what she can to get work, and she reminds me that she keeps her house clean. It is clean. And she has a roof over her head, and a tiled floor beneath her feet, even though it's slanted. It's her floor, and it's her roof, and though she wishes they were in better condition, she is thankful for having them both, and she keeps her house clean to show it.