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Dance on the edge

Posted by
Portrait| Los Angeles Skid Row (Los Angeles, United States) on 18 September 2007 in Lifestyle & Culture and Portfolio.

The dance is one of pain, hurt, anger and mental illness.

It is both interesting and painful to watch humans dance on the fringe of life.


Specifically, the dance is the boiling over of stress, the lack of medicine and effective healthcare.


We had just completed an interview in one of the hotels on the skid row nickel. As I glanced out the window I saw a hooded figure walking at a brisk pace. It was a hot summer night, and on the row - nights like that are filled with mystery and danger.


This hooded women just exploded; the words that sprang out of her mouth were utterances of painful days and years long gone. Yet recalled in the vision of burden.


Issues relating to male and female relationships, race and intense personal pain. As I watched from the 3rd floor window of the skid row hotel, it begain to look like she was dancing on the very edge of life.

As men passed she would attack them with words. Seems most understood her rage as they avoided direct contact.


These quiet hot nights on the row are strange and interesting. To see a human just melt down and dance on the edge of their mental state is freeing for the viewer and painful.


I recall a song by Sting: Fragile... "On and on the rain will fall how fragile we are."


::.Skid Row | Portrait is the reflection of a segement of humanity caught in the trap of poor healthcare, reduced economics, and mental illness. This is the great American story of a system that failed its people. It is the story where race and economics become focal points in most every interview.

::.Peace.::

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