{"id":671472,"date":"2026-11-01T05:30:25","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T05:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/671472\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T05:30:25","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T05:30:25","slug":"new-photo-book-shows-life-on-the-streets-of-portland-through-the-lens-of-a-photographer-who-experienced-homelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/671472\/","title":{"rendered":"New photo book shows life on the streets of Portland through the lens of a photographer who experienced homelessness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Erick<\/p>\n

Erick Thomas kisses his boyfriend, Cole Neiffer, on the cheek.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Keith Z<\/p>\n

Listen to audio from OPB journalists<\/p>\n

The cover of the book is an arresting image. A young Black woman looks off into the distance, cigarette in her right hand as she holds a pear in the other. Behind Yvonne, in the distance, a Rapid Response Bio-Clean truck collects trash bags as workers clear the sidewalk of people experiencing homelessness.<\/p>\n

\u201cOutside\u201d is Keith Zimmerman<\/a>\u2019s self-published debut depicting the lives of dozens of people sheltering on the streets of Portland \u2014 an experience that he is personally familiar with. <\/p>\n

\u201cPortland\u2019s homeless community is a community that I come from,\u201d said Keith, 52, who goes by his artist name, Keith Z. \u201cI was five years into recovery when I first picked up a camera.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Yvonne<\/p>\n

Yvonne poses for a portrait with a cigarette and pear in her hands as a Rapid Response Bio-Clean truck sweeps a homeless encampment behind her.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Keith Z<\/p>\n

Keith can\u2019t say the exact year, but he remembers that he started drinking in his teens and first became homeless in his early 20s. He never finished high school. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a dope fiend,\u201d Keith said of his shaky recall. As a young person, substances offered him relief from his turbulent upbringing. \u201cWe don\u2019t do time.\u201d <\/p>\n

This month Keith celebrated eight years of sobriety. It was his lived experiences that informed his artistic project chronicling the lives of homeless people when he started taking photos for the first time in his life in 2023 at age 49. <\/p>\n

Many of the people featured in Keith\u2019s 155-page photo book, supported by the Regional Arts and Culture Council and photographers at Franklin Foto, are close friends or community members he\u2019s met walking throughout downtown Portland. Franklin Foto, is hosting his official book release on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 5 to 8 p.m.<\/p>\n

\"Faith’s\"Faith’s<\/p>\n

First image: Faith\u2019s portrait is placed across a picture of collected cans in \u201cOutside.\u201d Keith said the bag is someone\u2019s cash. Second image: Faith poses for a portrait. <\/p>\n

All images: Courtesy of Keith Z.<\/p>\n

Keith\u2019s goal in publishing \u201cOutside\u201d was twofold: to reveal and to heal. <\/p>\n

After the onset of COVID-19, Keith would overhear public outrage about the disorder, drug use, and mess of encampments. As someone who had previously been homeless and was working as a peer support specialist, he was disturbed by the lack of compassion for people who were dying outside. Keith hopes that his book can present a different narrative. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople living outside are just like you \u2014 they\u2019re our neighbors,\u201d Keith said of photographing unhoused individuals. \u201cI wanted to allow a space for somebody who\u2019s not necessarily had that experience to be able to get close to these people and consider them as human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Nae-Nae\"Riley<\/p>\n

First image: Nae-Nae is pictured. \u201cShe loves being photographed, she puts real and delighted care into her makeup,\u201d said Keith. \u201cShe has so much style that she makes my eyes bleed.” Second image: Riley is pictured with the tattoo \u201cSTAY CARELESS\u201d as he wears a mask to avoid being ogled by passersby while eating his lunch at a bus stop. <\/p>\n

All images: Courtesy of Keith Z.<\/p>\n

Portraits that look back<\/p>\n

Joy, humor and survival are juxtaposed across the intimate pages of \u201cOutside.\u201d Couples kiss. People lounge on a makeshift bed as they smoke or sit back on a couch as they play with a blow torch while petting a dog. A fire lit in a steel drum keeps the cold at bay. <\/p>\n

Many of Keith\u2019s portraits are shot in color, tightly framed as people are centered, their gaze cast directly toward the viewer. Where people might avert their eyes when they see the despair of human poverty outdoors, Keith\u2019s photos challenge the audience to look back into the souls of people who have been shunned or ignored by society. <\/p>\n

\u201cI also found along the way that I could help people feel important by listening to them and caring about them,\u201d Keith said of photographing more than 60 people for his book. <\/p>\n

\"Tim\"Ida<\/p>\n

First image: Tim holds a blow torch in his hand. Keith knows him as someone who keeps a fire going to help people stay warm outside. Second image: Ida is a close friend of Keith who now lives in an apartment with her partner. <\/p>\n

All images: Courtesy of Keith Z.<\/p>\n

Christianna Lomas met Keith when they were both living in transitional housing in Chinatown about eight years ago. Her story is one of the featured interviews in \u201cOutside.\u201d In it, the 55-year-old describes her journey out of addiction and homelessness into her present-day path to homeownership through Habitat for Humanity. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s got a special vision. He sees people,\u201d Lomas said of Keith\u2019s photography. <\/p>\n

Lomas was one of the first people to read \u201cOutside\u201d in Keith\u2019s apartment living room. Looking at her own photo, where she sits in the teal foyer of her two-bedroom home, Lomas became tearful and overwhelmed by emotions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to be reminded through Keith that I am somebody whose story matters,\u201d she added. \u201cHe showed me a part of myself I had forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Christianna<\/p>\n

Christianna Lomas is one of the people featured in \u201cOutside.\u201d Keith and Lomas met in 2018 while in early recovery in transitional housing in Chinatown.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Keith Z<\/p>\n

There are other photographers who also capture the lives of homeless people in Portland, but Keith feels that some of them capitalize on the shock value in human suffering. <\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of photographers exploit homeless people because homeless people can\u2019t hide from them,\u201d Keith said. He\u2019s seen people getting filmed without their consent while going through psychosis or while high on drugs. \u201cThere are photographers who will use a really wide lens with so much distortion that everybody looks like a carnival freak.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I love the people I work with\u2019<\/p>\n

For Keith, his reason for photographing people living on Portland\u2019s streets is simple: \u201cI love the people I work with.\u201d<\/p>\n

His years of doing outreach in the realm of social work taught him how to build relationships with people who were experiencing housing instability. <\/p>\n

He refers to the subjects of his book as collaborators and tries in his own way to compensate people for their time as they make photos together. He keeps a pack of cigarettes in his pocket to hand out smokes. In his wallet is a wad of $5 and $10 bills he pays people. He always asks for consent. During the winter, he tries to pass out life-saving necessities like tents and blankets for people. <\/p>\n

\u201cMany people authored this book,\u201d Keith said in sharing his own story in \u201cOutside.\u201d He wants to offer his own vulnerability back to the people he photographed. \u201cIt\u2019s not about me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Keith<\/p>\n

Keith Z poses for a portrait in his living room. Courtesy of James Han.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of James Han<\/p>\n

The seed of inspiration for Keith\u2019s photography began before he even picked up a camera. As an avid reader, Keith\u2019s apartment is filled with hundreds of tomes, including \u201cA Time Before Crack.\u201d The critically acclaimed photo book by Jamel Shabazz, a New York City street photographer, featured Harlem\u2019s vibrant Black communities in the 1980s before the war on drugs. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I noticed about his work is that it just stripped away all the stereotypes around that community and just showed joy and unity and dignity,\u201d Keith said. \u201cI thought, \u2018That\u2019s how you do it.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Like Shabazz, Keith shoots entirely on film with his Contax camera. He\u2019s uncomfortable at times discussing his own personal investment, but he\u2019s spent at least $2,500 just to print 125 copies of his photo book \u2014 many of which he\u2019s given away to the people in it.<\/p>\n

As a self-taught photographer, Keith said it was Franklin Foto, which opened its doors and sliding-scale darkroom to him, and introduced him to a world of fine art. One of their teaching artists, Megan Sinclair, taught him how to develop his film and scan images. <\/p>\n

\u2018A call to arms\u2019<\/p>\n

Shooting in film can be a practice in faith when the results aren\u2019t revealed until the pictures are processed. <\/p>\n

\u201cI always think of photos as a prayer,\u201d Keith said. The book is also a way that Keith remembers friends who have died while experiencing homelessness. <\/p>\n

One of those people is Ruby, a dear friend of his who he described as a well-known pillar of Portland\u2019s homeless community, recognized for being sharply dressed in beautiful suits. Her life is memorialized in \u201cOutside\u201d through an interview with her son and her son\u2019s guardian. <\/p>\n

\"Ruby’s<\/p>\n

Ruby\u2019s memory is kept alive in \u201cOutside\u201d through interviews with her family members and loved ones. Keith remembers her as someone with a sense of style and describes her as a force of nature.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Keith Z<\/p>\n

\u201cWe say people OD\u2019d, but they die of poverty,\u201d Keith said. Ruby died last year in 2025. \u201cIf she had any f\u2014ing resources she wouldn\u2019t have died.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are moments when Keith, a bookish and soft-spoken man, is filled with a righteous fervor. He wants to raise awareness around the injustices that people experiencing homelessness are subjected to \u2014 having their documents swept away by street cleaning services or facing the imminent threats of living outside, such as physical violence and the Pacific Northwest\u2019s biting winters. That\u2019s where the coda section of \u201cOutside\u201d speaks to that anger.<\/p>\n

\"Louie<\/p>\n

Louie is pictured in the coda section of \u201cOutside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Keith Z<\/p>\n

The last 30 pages of Keith\u2019s book are all black-and-white photos, exposing the grittier reality of sleeping outdoors. The last two images are a diptych of Keith\u2019s best friend, Nae-Nae, her face wet as she weeps for her partner, who was in jail at the time. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the front, you\u2019re letting people get to know their lives. At the end, you show what happens if they\u2019re not able to get what is needed,\u201d Keith said. In the last image, on the back cover, \u201cHELP\u201d is written in bleeding graffiti on a window. \u201cI want it to be a call to arms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The\"The<\/p>\n

First image: The last two images in \u201cOutside\u201d are of Keith\u2019s best friend Nae-Nae who he said has \u201csaved my ass more than once\u201d while he was experiencing homelessness. Second image: <\/p>\n

All images: Courtesy of Keith Z.<\/p>\n

While walking near Union Station on a cold Sunday morning in late October, Keith runs into one of his previous models, Erick Thomas, who is in search of food and a warm place to stay. <\/p>\n

Thomas, 29, is wearing a red sweater, a gift from a street friend, that reads, \u201cI am going to receive everything I desire. All the right people and opportunities flow to me. I have made space for them in my life.\u201d Keith snaps a close-up of the manifestation and Thomas\u2019 Cuban chain that dangles over the text. <\/p>\n

In \u201cOutside,\u201d Thomas is pictured kissing his boyfriend on the cheek. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great day. I felt good. I felt peaceful,\u201d Erick said as he cradled Keith\u2019s book while looking at his portrait. \u201cIt\u2019s genuine \u2026 unconditional love.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Erick<\/p>\n

\uf054<\/p>\n

Showing image 1 of 15<\/p>\n

In this undated image provided by Keith Zimmerman, Erick Thomas kisses his boyfriend, Cole Neiffer, on the cheek. The image is seen in “Outside” Keith’s self-published debut that features members of Portland’s unhoused community that he has photographed since 2023 on film.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Keith Z<\/p>\n

\"Yvonne<\/p>\n

Showing image 1 of 15<\/p>\n

In this undated image provided by Keith Zimmerman, Yvonne poses for a portrait with a cigarette and pear in her hands as a Rapid Response Bio-Clean truck sweeps a homeless encampment behind her. The image is seen in “Outside” Keith’s self-published debut that features members of Portland’s unhoused community that he has photographed since 2023 on film.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Keith Z<\/p>\n

\"Faith’s<\/p>\n

Showing image 1 of 15<\/p>\n

This undated image provided by Keith Zimmerman shows collected cans. The image is seen in “Outside” Keith’s self-published debut that features members of Portland’s unhoused community that he has photographed since 2023 on film.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Keith Z<\/p>\n

\"Faith’s<\/p>\n

Showing image 1 of 15<\/p>\n

This undated image provided by Keith Zimmerman shows Faith. The image is seen in “Outside” Keith’s self-published debut that features members of Portland’s unhoused community that he has photographed since 2023 on film.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Keith Z<\/p>\n

\"Ruby’s<\/p>\n

Showing image 1 of 15<\/p>\n

This undated image provided by Keith Zimmerman shows Ruby. The image is seen in “Outside” Keith’s self-published debut that features members of Portland’s unhoused community that he has photographed since 2023 on film.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Keith Z<\/p>\n

\"Erick<\/p>\n

Showing image 1 of 15<\/p>\n

This image provided by Keith Zimmerman, Erick Thomas looks down as Keith photographs him wearing a sweater with a manifesto in Portland, Ore., Saturday, October 25, 2026.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Keith Z<\/p>\n

\"Tim<\/p>\n

Showing image 1 of 15<\/p>\n

In this undated image provided by Keith Zimmerman, Tim holds a blow torch in his hand. The image is seen in “Outside” Keith’s self-published debut that features members of Portland’s unhoused community that he has photographed since 2023 on film.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Keith Z<\/p>\n

\"Ida<\/p>\n

Showing image 1 of 15<\/p>\n

This undated image provided by Keith Zimmerman shows Ida. The image is seen in “Outside” Keith’s self-published debut that features members of Portland’s unhoused community that he has photographed since 2023 on film.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Keith Z<\/p>\n

\"Keith<\/p>\n

Showing image 1 of 15<\/p>\n

In this undated image provided by James Han, Keith Z poses for a photo.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of James Han<\/p>\n

\"Nae-Nae<\/p>\n

Showing image 1 of 15<\/p>\n

This undated image provided by Keith Zimmerman shows Nae-Nae. The image is seen in “Outside” Keith’s self-published debut that features members of Portland’s unhoused community that he has photographed since 2023 on film.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Keith Z<\/p>\n

\"Riley<\/p>\n

Showing image 1 of 15<\/p>\n

This undated image provided by Keith Zimmerman shows Riley with the tattoo \u201cSTAY CARELESS\u201d as he wears a mask. The image is seen in “Outside” Keith’s self-published debut that features members of Portland’s unhoused community that he has photographed since 2023 on film.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Keith Z<\/p>\n

\"Christianna<\/p>\n

Showing image 1 of 15<\/p>\n

This undated image provided by Keith Zimmerman shows Christianna Lomas. The image is seen in “Outside” Keith’s self-published debut that features members of Portland’s unhoused community that he has photographed since 2023 on film.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Keith Z<\/p>\n

\"Louie<\/p>\n

Showing image 1 of 15<\/p>\n

This undated image provided by Keith Zimmerman shows Louie. The image is seen in “Outside” Keith’s self-published debut that features members of Portland’s unhoused community that he has photographed since 2023 on film.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Keith Z<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Showing image 1 of 15<\/p>\n

This undated image provided by Keith Zimmerman shows Nae-Nae. The image is seen in “Outside” Keith’s self-published debut that features members of Portland’s unhoused community that he has photographed since 2023 on film.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Keith Z<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Showing image 1 of 15<\/p>\n

This undated image provided by Keith Zimmerman shows Nae-Nae. The image is seen in “Outside” Keith’s self-published debut that features members of Portland’s unhoused community that he has photographed since 2023 on film.<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Keith Z<\/p>\n