As a citizen of Chicago, I was concerned about the increasing number of homeless people I saw in my daily commutes around the city and wanted to use my skill as a photographer in some way to help their situation. As an artist I realized that the tents homeless people were living in were transforming into the new symbol of Homelessness. Tents used to symbolize healthy outdoor living but now they were being transformed into another type of outdoor living. My background was in magazine photography and news and stock agencies before I went to graduate school where the emphasis was in documentary photography. I pursued the connection with StreetWise because I wanted a partner who understood the complexities of the issue and because I wanted to publish and show my work in an untraditional outlet to get beyond the noise of regular media outlets and to get out of the traditional white walls of a gallery. StreetWise was also a way back to a traditional news outlet of my youth - the news magazines, Time, Newsweek, and LIFE Magazine. The historic photo essays of W. Eugene Smith, Robert Capa and Dorothea Lange were very influential to me in my studies. Word choice with the photos was very important to these photographers, especially to Smith where the word choice was almost poetic. Suzanne's words are like Smith's words; they paint further words and descriptions into my images.
