Casa Segura was a drug treatment and needle exchange clinic in The Fruitvale district of Oakland California. But these photos are not about drug addiction or drug treatment. I was looking for a project where I could eliminate the background, leaving the viewer with nothing but the individual. So when a staff member from Casa Segura suggested I photograph the clinic, I returned with a camera and black cloth, which I taped to the wall of a exterior stairwell landing. It was a spur of the moment thing, and I barely had the film in my camera before people began lining up. The light was brilliant, pouring in from the open sky on both sides of the landing, and each person took charge of how they wanted to be photographed. There was no time to ask for their stories, and the people who stood in front of my camera had something to express beyond the details of their current or past troubles. Through an aggressive pose, the care for a kitten, a cautious look, or the love of a friend, they had their say, and expressed their feelings to those who would later be looking at these images.