Between 3,000 and 6,000 homeless people, the largest concentration of homeless in the United States, convene on the streets of Los Angeles’ Skid Row on any given day. The city tops the nation with tens of thousands of chronically homeless people, so tent cities are common sites under freeway overpasses, and along streets in neighborhoods rich and poor.

On July 4, 2016, a national day of celebration, I drove to Skid Row to document this dire situation. To serve as a backdrop, I hung a large American flag upside down. The upside down flag is a symbol of distress. One of my first volunteer subjects was dressed in a flag bikini. She asked if I would buy her a bottle of water. I gave her a dollar after I photographed her. She quickly reappeared with a bullhorn and announced that I was offering a dollar to each person willing to pose. Soon a line formed around the block. One of my favorite subjects was ‘Reefer Girl’ who was smoking a joint and attracting others to pose.

Over the course of one hour, I gave away $100 and shot four hundred pictures. The images reveal a cross section of Skid Row residents of all ages and races: kids playing, proud vets boasting of their service, couples idling, fathers and sons conversing, and individuals strutting as fashion statements I’d never seen before. They seemed lost, happy, angry, pensive, and humble.

When I returned two weeks later to distribute the prints I had promised to some of my subjects, I found many of them still present, although some had disappeared.