A Look Into Oklahoma City’s Unhoused Population’s Daily Lives

Jesse Miller, a professor of photography, and Matt Jones, a professor of criminal justice, embarked on a project three years ago with the goal of displaying the life of homeless individuals, and allowing them to create narratives around their reality. Now, the photo exhibition is being held at the Downtown Metropolitan Library, and will be up until Saturday, Sept. 28.

The University of Central Oklahoma professors applied for a grant before COVID-19, and then got accepted for this collaborative project. They then gave unhoused individuals disposable cameras and told them to photograph their daily lives.

“A lot of my interests deal with poverty and kind of the edges of the criminal justice system,” said Jones. “I view a lot of what the criminal justice system deals with of the fallout from larger systematic arrangements.”

Jones described how he was working with a research assistant at the time and that’s when the idea for the project came along. He described the quantitative work that went into most assessments of people facing homelessness, and said he wanted to do something different and focus on the human aspect.

“We see people who don’t have houses, and we kind of have these narratives forced upon them,” Jones said. “So, we wanted to let them try to have more of a say in that narrative.”

They met candidates for this project by going to the main campus of the Homeless Alliance and “Fresh Start” classes. The Homeless Alliance offers housing, food, showers, computers and more. “Fresh Start” are what the art classes are called that the Homeless Alliance offers.

“I just kind of hope it sensitizes people to the issues and things that they might see,” said Jones. “I hope it lets you see a little bit through their eyes. Empathy, humanity, I hope those things kind of result.”