street sense.

street sense – for those who aren’t familiar with the publication – is a street newspaper here in dc. like other street newspapers, it is produced with the goal of raising public awareness on the issues of homelessness and poverty, while also creating awesome opportunities for the city’s poor and homeless.

street sense delivers 16-pages of news, feature stories, editorials, poems, photography, and other art – produced and sold by homeless or formerly homeless people, with help from volunteers and industry professionals. there are approximately 60 street sense vendors in the city – who are able to turn a profit from selling the papers and help pull themselves out of poverty with the opportunites afforded to them by working with the publication. many of the vendors have been profiled on the pages of street sense, telling their stories and sharing their lives with readers.

recently, the well-known street sense photographer cliff carle – or “the moose” as he’s known – gave an interview about his passion for photography…i always look forward to “cliff’s pics” as the section is called, and i particularly enjoy reading what cliff has to say about a particular shot – what he liked about the frame, why it worked, why it inspired him.

needless to say, i was very excited to finally run into cliff on saturday night outside of the cvs in my neighborhood. he had his street sense vendor jacket on, and a nikon D200 slung around his neck with a 300mm lens affixed, and an arm full of newspapers.

we chatted for about a half hour about photography, and despite our many differences (he prefers nikon, i’m a canon girl – he adores architectural images, i love people) we share the same love for the camera and drive for capturing images that all photographers have.before we parted i bought the latest copy of street sense, and since he had a copy of his interview with him he asked if i’d like him to sign it for me! since he goes by “the moose” he wanted to know what people call me…and he loved that people refer to me as the blonde photographer! so he addressed his note to jaime – aka “da blonde photography” girl – but not before insisting on snapping my pic!

i only wish i had my camera to return the favor…let’s just hope that one doesn’t wind up on in the next “cliff pic’s” although i would of course be incredibly honored – as cliff himself has said: “portraits, well … they’re okay. i’m not a big portrait fan. i might see something in a person’s face, so I’ll do it.”

i guess he saw something in mine.