The police took Ted "Woodstock" Eason into custody as a suspect. Samples doesn't believe Woodstock had anything to do with it, but it's out of his hands now. The world they had made for themselves has quickly fallen apart. James is dead, Woodstock in jail. Carl and his uncle are still at the camp, drinking their way to a slow suicide. If they can get it together, they'll pack up and leave. To who knows where.
Bill Banks is moving on soon, too. Samples discovered that Veterans Affairs owed Bill $1,800 in 1986. With interest, that amount has almost doubled. He's arranged with Central Dallas Ministries' Larry James to find some transitional housing for Bill, something temporary until he can stand on his own. Bill might be fixing cars again earlier than anyone thought.
Top: Mark Graham; bottom: Hal Samples
Clockwise from top: Hal Samples chats with William Dolphus Banks near The Stewpot; Banks gives his opinion of the Dallas Police Department in one of Samples' photos, "Bill's Military Salute"; photos such as this one, "Class," show how far Samples has come since buying his first camera five months ago.
Hal Samples
Clockwise from top: There are 5,000 more people just like this in Dallas--or is that number 10,000? Or more than that?; "Best Friends" James, left, and Carl pose outside their camp on Northwest Highway; Duane, a professional homeless man, was Samples' first subject.
Details
Hero to Zero is at Angstrom Gallery on January 17 from 8 p.m. to midnight. The show is sponsored by Prestige Ford, City Color Imaging,
Philanthropy World magazine and Phil Romano. All proceeds benefit Central Dallas Ministries and A Friend Indeed Foundation. Call 214-417-8283 or e-mail
HAL@herotozero.org for more information.
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It's Samples' biggest success to date, something concrete to build on. But there are plenty of smaller examples of the effect he's had in just a few months. It's those little things that keep him going. Like when he gave Red $10 to find Bill and give him the new sleeping bag he'd bought for him. Samples ran into Bill a few days later, and Bill thanked him for the sleeping bag. And the five bucks. Red knew how much Bill meant to Samples, so he split the money with him, even though that wasn't the original deal, even though he needed that money just as much as Bill did. Samples will take another 500 photos for moments like that.
Hero to Zero is spreading in small ways--and bigger ones, too. Jerry Reynolds has made the Prestige family of dealerships drop zones for clothing, shoes and blankets. Phil Romano, a longtime homeless advocate, is coming on board to lend his support. Central Dallas Ministries and A Friend Indeed Foundation are putting Samples in front of those who can effect real change--people with money, people with power over policy.
Whatever happens, he doesn't want or need the credit.
"Sometimes people are doing things for egos, and sometimes people are doing things because they really want to help," Samples says. "There's public services, private services; there's nonprofit, faith-based and all that sort of stuff. It's craziness, all the different things that are going on. I don't want any of that. I don't even know how to spell philanthropy right now. That's an industry, dude. And it's great. And it doesn't matter if it's helping the people that are helping the people, or it's helping the people, but somebody's getting helped. I just want to be the photographer guy that's got my own deal."
