ENTRY DESCRIPTION
ZAKS

My partner, Alejandro, and I met Zaks in downtown Los Angeles, not far from Skid Row. When I asked Zaks if he had been born in Los Angeles, he replied, “I was born in Japan. My dad was stationed in the Air Force business since I was two-years-old.” “Do you have any family?” Alejandro asked him. “Oh yeah,” he said. “I should give them a call…. I have a sister in Ohio. I got a brother in Evanston. I got folks in Colorado … aunts…. Everybody’s tight. I’ve got an amazing family.” Zaks then went on to say, “It’s pharmaceuticals are why I’m sure, probably, why I never stuck with some kind of job…. I’m always stoned…. I’ve got to quit doing that…. If I’m not on pharmaceuticals, or some kind of drug, I feel like I’m drawing from it all the time.” (Throughout the interview, Zaks held an unlit joint in his hand.) When I asked Zaks what the hardest part of being homeless was, he replied, “Ah … I don’t know actually, it’s all in your mind. Yeah, I got used to it or something. I don’t know.”

AUTHOR
Leah Denbok is a 17-year-old grade 12 student at Collingwood Collegiate Institute. For the past four years the Leah has been mentored by the National Geographic photographer and Fellow Joel Sartore. When Leah was only 14-years-old, Joel said of Leah, "If she sticks with it I think she is well on her way to becoming not just a good photographer but a great photographer. And I'm not kidding." This past August Leah was invited to exhibit her photography at Christ Church Cathedral during the Supercrawl event in Hamilton. Afterwards, the internationally known street photography, Alex Zafer, posted a comment on Facebook in which he said of Leah, "This is a young woman with an obviously high EQ, mega talent, and a terrific eye for humanizing homeless people on the streets who are so often looked upon, or looked-over as subhuman." After graduating from high school Leah intends to study photojournalism at university.











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