'That's Home:' Photography show lets shelter residents show what 'home' looks like to them

Johnnie Richardson thumbed through a pack of black-and-white photos yesterday, seeing for the first time the pictures he took back in March.

"Oh, yeah, oh, yeah," he said over and over. "That's home. That's what it's supposed to look like."

Richardson doesn't have a home of his own. He lives at the Bethesda Center, a shelter on 10th Street. The pictures that he took in and around the shelter are part of a project to raise money for the shelter and to raise awareness about what it's like to be homeless in Winston-Salem.

"Home" is the theme of the project. Participants were asked to take photos that in some way depict home for them. Their efforts will be on display as part of a new exhibition, "Home: A Black and White Photography Exhibition." The exhibit will begin at 5 p.m. today with an opening reception and will continue through May 30 at the Enrichment Center, 1006 S. Marshall St. Tickets for the opening reception are $25.

Richardson was one of 10 residents taking part in the project. He has been at Bethesda for about two years and hasn't had a permanent home for about 10 years, he said. He said he has been able to get part-time laborer jobs, but has been unable to find permanent work.

"When I took these pictures, they took me back to the times when I was in my own place," Richardson said. "And it put me in the mind that I can be in my own place again.

"And it's going to happen."

A picture of a dogwood tree reminds him of the trees he had in his yard growing up in Greensboro. Another picture shows a hoop above a garage, such as the one on which Richardson and his friends used to play basketball. Other pictures show rental houses nearby, and some show residents and workers at the shelter.

Jeff Fortune, another participant, said he was trying to depict scenes that captured a sense of optimism that defies stereotypes about what homelessness is like.

Fortune said he knows that people usually think negatively about homeless shelters, but he considers his eight months at Bethesda a blessing. He said that during that time, he has been able to get off the drugs that led him to be homeless, and he now has work. He said he is confident that someday he will have a home of his own.

The program could help clear up some misunderstandings about homelessness, but it can go only so far, he said.

"There's a difference between a photograph and the reality of being here," he said. "There's no experience like being here."

Angela Hearst's pictures show a darker side of that experience. She took pictures of places where she once slept, including the front steps of a church and a small cave made of twigs that she called a "stick crib."

The art show will showcase 11-by-14-inch prints of more than 50 of the top pictures.

The top five will be auctioned, and the remaining ones will be sold for $25 each.

Freelance photographer Jay Sinclair helped judge the photos.

He said he was surprised at how striking some of them were.

"I went through several times to try to narrow it down," he said. "There were a lot of strong shots -- I wanted to choose more."

The show was organized by Clyde Manning, Bethesda's development director. Manning, who has worked for the shelter for the past eight months, said she had worked on a similar program at a homeless shelter where she used to work in Indiana and thought that a similar project would work well here.

"We talk about the homeless, and we have a picture of that in our minds," Manning said. "There's lots of stereotypes."

She said that even though there is some truth in those stereotypes, it's not a complete picture of what life is like for the homeless in our area.

"It's interesting to see through these photographs how the people we serve see home," she said.

The first cameras were handed out in mid-March, and once the photos were developed, the negatives were printed in a darkroom by a group of Salem College students taking a photography class at the Sawtooth Center.

Manning said she hopes that the project will raise about $10,000. Some of the money will help pay for Project Homecoming, which helps residents ease the transition from shelter life to independent living by providing them with such necessities as pots and pans and linens.

She said that awareness of the plight of the homeless and what the center provides for them is as valuable as the money that the program will raise.

"We're sowing seeds for the future with this," she said.

■ Paul Garber can be reached at 727-7327 or at pgarber@wsjournal.com.