Homeless People in Downtown San Francisco

In January 2002 I got my first digital camera, and right away one with a telephoto lens. (Before that I'd picked up a used compact somewhere at an auction, whose batteries lasted exactly two photos. Which didn't matter, since no more than that would fit on the card anyway.)

And since we were living practically in the centre of San Francisco, I headed out into the streets to test it. Back then the downtown was inhabited largely by homeless people (and today even much more so). So there was plenty to shoot. A telephoto lens lets you keep your distance; it was probably during this test that I developed my later photographic fondness for shooting portraits of locals from afar and ideally without them knowing.

For someone from Central Europe such a concentration of begging homeless people is bizarre, especially in contrast with the luxury of the surrounding banks, shops and cars. The climate and the tolerance of the residents play into their hands, though, and on top of that the cost of housing drives more and more of them into the streets every year...