Mugen_1

<thread revival>

Actually, I'm the closest to it, at about an hour and ten minutes away. I've been through it a couple times, but never stopped to get out and poke around. Students from Southern Illinois University Carbondale did a big project on the town a few years ago, and can be found here:

http://cairo.mcma.siu.edu/

Maybe one of these days when I'm free, I'll make an excursion and go check it out.

It depends on how you approach them - I consider myself a somewhat special case:

Two years ago, I did a project on a homeless man named Jeremiah (allegedly) who lived in an old freight depot building in St. Louis. Through him, I met countless other homeless people, city officials, the depot's owners, students, a journalist from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, etc. Thought it turned out he was a lying, conniving fraud, many of the other homeless people I met remembered me when I came back several months after Jeremiah had been evicted. After spending a few months "settling in" with this other group of homeless, known as Dignity Harbor, I gained their trust (and vice versa) and they allowed me to do another project on them - I am one of only two people they allow in their camp with a camera. This is that project:

http://www.stlbeacon...-dignity-harbor

I continue to visit them on a regular basis, for hours at a time. I talk to them, hang out with them, eat with them - just haven't stayed a night with them yet. But because I know so many homeless people in St. Louis, access to abandoned buildings is never an issue - I either know a resident, or know someone who does. I can explore without feeling threatened as they have openly offered tours of these locations.

That said, I still carry MACE and have my monopod ready to be used as a nightstick if needed. But I've gained an entirely new respect for the homeless which I think will aid me in future encounters. Respect them, and they'll (mostly) respect you.

And as an amusing anecdote, Phil Greer, a long time photo editor for the Chicago Tribune (and my former professor), told me he once was sitting around a burning barrel with a group of homeless men; they told him he couldn't take pictures, and they were pretty tight-lipped. Then one of them got out a bottle and passed it around. When it got to Phil, he drank from it, and passed it on. The "leader" of the men said: "Wait guys. He didn't wipe the top of the bottle off first. He's cool by me," and they opened up and let him get out the camera.