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WALTHAM —
After six months on the streets, Jeannie Redman took pictures of things others rarely looked at.
She photographed cracks in the sidewalk and gnarled trees growing together.
And the former nurse left homeless after escaping domestic violence photographed her own sneakered feet treading the pavement between the Community Day Center in Waltham and the cemetery where she sometimes slept.
Redman's photographs are now part of a moving exhibit at the DCU Digital Federal Credit Union at 130 Lexington St., Waltham.
Her evocative color images are displayed along with photographs by four other homeless people as part of an innovative collaboration between Lasell College and the Community Day Center.
Marilyn Lee-Tom, executive director of CDC, and associate professor Sharyn Lowenstein, director of the Center for Community Based Learning at Lasell, organized the project to help homeless people express themselves through art and expose students to real world issues.
Lee-Tom helped find five volunteers who were then homeless or near-homeless and who came to CDC to look for work, keep warm, apply for benefits or just seek the solace of companionship.
She and Lowenstein wanted a "more ambitious" project than a earlier effort by another Lasell faculty member that resulted in a photo album done by center "guests."
"Their journeys are so different. I wanted to capture that through their eyes," said Lee-Tom, who last September took over the center at the First Presbyterian Church at 34 Alder St.
Redman and the others were given disposable Kodak cameras loaded with a roll of 36 exposures and asked to photograph whatever interested them over a two-week period.
Lowenstein assigned seven students in her Capstone honors course to work with the photographers writing "narratives" for their photos and organizing the best shots into an exhibit.
"We weren't really sure what we'd get for photos. For my students, I wanted to get them out of their comfort zones and in the shelter where they'd be exposed to larger social issues. I hoped (the students) would develop leadership and see themselves as citizens of a Greater Boston community," she said.
After the five rolls of 180 photos were developed, Lee-Tom observed, "The pictures spoke for themselves."
"You can see the honesty of their emotions in their pictures," she said.
An attorney who previously worked with battered women, Lee-Tom said she was moved by the frankness and compassion she found in many of the images.
A homeless man, who asked only to be identified as Patrick, photographed other homeless men often in postures of resignation or despair.
With help from Lowenstein's students, the photos were organized into an exhibit that combines images and explanatory text. It was initially shown in the CDC's own art gallery and then in Lasell's Wedeman Gallery in the Yamawaki Arts and Cultural Center last February.
Gallery director Serdar Arat said some visitors found the 30 photos surprisingly upbeat while others thought they captured the anxiety and hardship of homelessness.
Alli Huhtala, a senior Fashion Design major, said helping with the project has "been a profoundly eye-opening experience."
"Before I saw their pictures, I wasn't expecting anything in particular. What came back was raw, uncut and beautiful. You felt like you were there. You felt the cold," said the 21-year-old Phillipston resident. "You could see through these pictures into peoples' lives. They weren't just photos. They were windows."
Huhtala said she was initially nervous about meeting the three women and two men from CDC who were taking the photos. But as she learned their stories, she said the deeper meaning of their photos came into focus.
She recalled that Jeannie Redman told her she photographed blue herons on a river at 5 a.m. because before she became homeless she'd been too busy to notice them.
"Being homeless didn't beat a sense of beauty out of her," said Huhtala.
She said she was moved by Redman's "eloquence" when she described the meaning of her other photos.
"When she photographed cracks in the pavement, she compared them to cracks in her own life. There was a tree branch kind of knotted together. Jeannie said that was like the knots we twist in our own lives. Jeannie said when she was first homeless she always took pictures of her feet because she felt too bad to look up," said Huhtala.
She said other participants in the program also made deep impressions on her.
"Patrick saw people in isolation. He got so into photography, he got his own camera. Annie came out of her shell. She's really articulate. Her photos were of the social services she used like food, medical and mail," said Huhtala. "And Ron showed hardcore homelessness. He showed the tunnels where people slept and their bedrolls. He said he wanted to 'Give the homeless a voice and a face."'
Huhtala said she'd initially taken the Capstone course "because it fit into my schedule."
"But, oh my gosh, I can't believe how much this project changed me, I hope for the better," she said. "It was really a learning experience."
THE ESSENTIALS:
WHAT: "Homelessness from Our Eyes: A Photography Exhibit by Waltham Day Center Guests"
WHEN: Through April 30
WHERE: DCU Digital Federal Credit Union, 130 Lexington St., Waltham
HOURS: 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday-Wednesday; 9 a.m.-7 p.m., Thursday and Friday; 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday
ADMISSION: Free
INFO: 800-328-8797, www.dcu.org
