Building trust: How a Photojournalist captures the nuances of unhoused people

When you look at a photograph, you are essentially looking through the eyes of the photographer as they point something out. Their sense of artistry and structure should be clear to see, but also their biases, and their power dynamic with their subjects.

In southern California’s Riverside, Report for America corps member and CatchLight fellow Aryana Noroozi has been reporting on the city’s unhoused population for Black Voice News. The empathy that comes through in her images is not simply a function of Aryana’s personality, but has a lot to do with the process by which she reports, photographs, and most importantly, develops sources among the unhoused community.

Inside a van that doubles as a mobile clinic, Desteny Benson (right), a clinical support partner at Healthcare in Action, takes the blood pressure of Dominique, a patient in San Bernardino, California on May 1, 2024. Part of the success of Healthcare in Action is providing services by meeting people where they are. This includes providing onsite lab work and tests, which are typically out of reach for unhoused communities due to lack of access to transportation to clinics, wait times and internet access to receive results. (Photo by Aryana Noroozi for CatchLight Local / Black Voice News)

“All the folks that I really spend time with, especially in their homes, or like their intimate lives, I’m working with a trusted [person] to help me navigate that,” Noroozi said. “Kristen Mallory is incredible – one of the best sources I’ve ever worked with. I met her for my warehousing project, as she was injured in a warehouse. Then she started doing nature cleanups, and of course, was meeting unhoused folks out in these nature areas.”

Mallory developed a relationship with many unhoused people in the Inland Empire, collecting donations, and spending time with them, according to Noroozi. After a couple of years she was approached by Eddie Menacho, the director of a street medicine team that was trying to expand their coverage area in San Bernardino.

Physician assistant students review notes while shadowing the Healthcare in Action, as part of their curriculum, team in San Bernardino, California on May 1, 2024. Part of the success of Healthcare in Action is providing services by meeting people where they are. This includes providing onsite lab work and tests, which are typically out of reach for unhoused communities due to lack of access to transportation to clinics, wait times and internet access to receive results. (Photo by Aryana Noroozi for CatchLight Local / Black Voice News)

“Sort of like a journalist, Eddie asked Kristen, can I just come out with you? You’re this trusted source,” Noroozi said. “So I wanted to cover the street medicine team as well as the unhoused population.” Eventually, Noroozi said she started going out by herself more often, as members of the unhoused community began to trust her more.

“I think what I really took away from my own experience with this community and this region was that there’s a lot of layers to how vulnerable someone is,” said Noroozi. “There’s sobriety and food insecurity. There’s having a literal roof over their head, be it a motel, or maybe even a car. There’s living in an encampment.”

Dominique poses for a portrait outside of the encampment where she lives and is receiving treatment from the Healthcare in Action Street Medicine team in San Bernardino, California on May 1, 2024. Dominique is seven months pregnant. Before receiving care from Healthcare in Action, Dominique recalled having to wait hours for a blood test at a clinic earlier in the week. Part of the success of Healthcare in Action is providing services by meeting people where they are. This includes providing onsite lab work and tests, which are typically out of reach for unhoused communities due to lack of access to transportation to clinics, wait times and internet access to receive results. (Photo by Aryana Noroozi for CatchLight Local / Black Voice News)

When a photographer is moving through a scene, the seemingly small physical and emotional decisions they make have an outsized effect on how the picture will ultimately read. Photographing the unhoused and vulnerable has long been a staple of the undergraduate photo student or amateur street photographer. A photographer who feels intimidated will often use a telephoto lens to work at a distance, as if they were photographing wildlife. Or a bolder photographer might get closer and snap a picture while quickly walking past, representing only the barest facts of a person’s situation.

Bikes are stacked at a homeless encampment beside a Golf Course in Rialto, California on May 1, 2024. Raylen, a patient of the Healthcare in Action street team, has a passion for fixing bikes and does so for his encampment community. Part of the success of Healthcare in Action is providing services by meeting people where they are. This includes providing onsite lab work and tests, which are typically out of reach for unhoused communities due to lack of access to transportation to clinics, wait times and internet access to receive results. (Photo by Aryana Noroozi for CatchLight Local / Black Voice News)

“So you have to understand how delicate this is. Everyone who’s involved cares. We’re all here for the right reasons. So let’s just really make sure we get this right,” Noroozi said of her newsroom’s standards of practice. “Whereas some random street photographer might just shoot looking down on a person using opiates with a needle. I see some of these images of people high on synthetic opiates like, how could they really consent to this? And [the street photographer] is not there with the street medicine team, and to be advocates for unhoused people’s humanity, ” she added.

Lead PA Carolina Ajca (right) and Healthcare in Action Regional Medical Director Eddie Menacho (center), talk to Raylen, a patient who lives in an encampment in Rialto, California during their visit on May 1, 2024. Ajca asked Raylen about his current medications and conditions while recording notes and offering him a specialist referral. Part of the success of Healthcare in Action is providing services by meeting people where they are. This includes providing onsite lab work and tests, which are typically out of reach for unhoused communities due to lack of access to transportation to clinics, wait times and internet access to receive results.(Photo by Aryana Noroozi for CatchLight Local / Black Voice News)

Noroozi offered some tips for young photographers to get in the right mindset to photograph vulnerable populations, and it mostly comes down to being sensitive to their situation, knowledgeable about how people experiencing homelessness have been represented in the past, and above all, being fair.

“I hope that we have that judgment as journalists, to be sensitive and be human no matter who we’re representing in the media,” Noroozi said. “But just think of unhoused people as even more vulnerable than other people you’ve reported on, and a higher bar for ethics and how you act to make sure people are comfortable. Recognize that these folks have been treated like dirt by everyone in society. So you really have to show them you’re not trying to do that. And that comes with your actions, your body language, your demeanor, not bringing your camera out like right away, and just talking to them. I can relate to these people in many ways, and so just being a person, I think, is the number one thing here.”