![]() Skid Row had a raw energy that felt more like the Democratic Republic of Congo than America, but it took awhile before I was ready to photograph there. When I first drove through the neighborhood, I was amazed by all the tents and the people crowding the streets. Then, with the birth of my daughter, Poppy, I began limiting my time away from home. Before then, I’d spent most of my time covering conflict-related stories outside the U.S.-in central and northern Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. I became interested in Skid Row after moving to L.A. I often feel drawn to photograph people who live on the hard margins of society. They stand shoulder to shoulder in lines to receive food and other donated goods. They swap or share food, drink, drugs, alcohol, money. People live crammed together and are always mingling. I’ve spent the past few months photographing, recording interview and audio of Skid Row and its residents-some of the most vulnerable people in our city. For many in the community, missions and volunteer organizations are keystones, their only means of survival. Around the same time, numbers of returning Vietnam War veterans hobbled by mental illness and drug dependence, also converged on Skid Row. During the 1970s, Los Angeles deinstitutionalized many psychiatric hospitals, discharging people from long-term facilities and sending them to clinics and halfway houses or simply abandoning them, a problem that persists. With some 5,000 people, L.A.’s Skid Row is like a little city within the metropolis-a city defined by the tents on its sidewalks. Only later, around the time of the Great Depression, did it become synonymous with impoverished neighborhoods across the country. It initially described the logging communities along the “skid roads” where logs were dragged to be loaded onto ships at the port. ![]() The name Skid Row originated in Seattle, an hour south of the Washington farming region where I grew up. It’s a roughly 50-block area east of downtown, mostly warehouses, low-income housing, single-room occupancy hotels-and tents. From a recently article photographed/written for National Geographic: This city’s Skid Row has been home to people on the margins of society for more than a century. Interviews and caption information coming soon. UNITED SIKHS will organize an emergency blood drive in the coming days and deploy a team of healthcare providers to offer grief counseling.- For MOTION scroll to bottom. The state government has declared a state of mourning, and all offices and educational institutions remain closed in Punjab. The railway company will not provide any financial assistance to families of the victims, as it has considered the incident to be trespassing. Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha ruled out any punitive action against the train conductor, citing no negligence on the part of the national transporter. Railway officials are continuing search and rescue operations, as the death toll is expected to rise once the wreckage is fully cleared. We are working to provide them with the funds in their time of need.” “Many of the victims are unable to pay for funeral costs and transport their loved ones to their ancestral villages as a final resting place. “This tragic accident has devastated an entire community,” said Gurvinder Singh, UNITED SIKHS Aid Director. UNITED SIKHS Volunteers Provide Food to Injured Survivors & Their Families at Civil Hospital To help provide relief in this time of crisis, the non-profit humanitarian charity distributed food to survivors and their families at local hospitals. Immediately following the incident, UNITED SIKHS volunteers reach the site of the accident and worked with local authorities to assess needs. The victims reportedly could not hear the train whistle due to the exploding fireworks. At least 60 people lost their lives and dozens more were injured when the speeding train mowed them down as they were celebrating. Hundreds of Hospitalized Survivors, Grieving Families Need SupportĪMRITSAR, INDIA – An evening celebration of Dussehra quickly turned into a rescue mission late yesterday when a multi-car train crashed into a crowd of festival attendees.
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