Rita told stories of her homelessness with much sly wit and humor.  She recounted her life as a play in which she acted all the parts, dramatizing her defense of a place to sleep at a bus shelter, and poking fun at the gadgets she sold in a sex shop while taking pride in her ability to hold down a job.  Rita surrounded herself with objects found on the streets or in dumpsters as well as a large collection of Teletubbies, things representing wealth and success to her.

When a fire rendered Iona homeless, she was already jobless, the factory where she had once worked having moved to the suburbs.  She also had a broken ankle and spent much of her time while homeless hobbling across Detroit, a city with little public transportation, in search of medical and social services.  To frame this narrative portrait, Fulmer juxtaposes Iona’s drawings of fanciful birds and an idealized living room with statues from Tiger Stadium, where Iona once worked in the concession stands.

Elaine became homeless when her husband was killed in a hit-and-run accident, and she could no longer pay the rent.  With no other close family members still living, she turned to a homeless shelter, which she described, as did several of the other women, as a prison.  Elaine held on to her vision of a better future with a collection of intact gift bags.  Clippings of advertisements in her scrapbook served as a wish list for a better life.  Fulmer uses one of these advertisements—for windows in a luxury home—to emphasize the contrast between the low-income housing where Elaine lives with the multi-million dollar houses being built across the street.

In shocking contrast to her orderly apartment, Dorothy told stories of violence and alcohol and sexual abuse.  To relate these stories, Fulmer deliberately chose abstraction over literalism because she wanted to emphasize Dorothy’s “journey of change” from “chaos to stability.”  Elements of stability in this narrative portrait include the Thompson Home, the Wayne State University historic home, where Dr. Moxley’s office is located, the front entry of the converted hospital where Dorothy lives, and her collections of angels and Tweety Birds.

Gilda also told stories of fear and violence, but these were tempered by successes, such as her daughter’s graduation from high school.  In the course of her interviews with Fulmer, Gilda again became homeless, and her daughter left her mother to strike out on her own.  In this portrait, Fulmer emphasizes Gilda’s “enduring faith in a better future,” juxtaposing photographs from her scrapbook against her stories of living in a homeless shelter while her daughter attended school.  In one story, Gilda spent days at a Farmer Jack grocery store, filling and emptying a cart of items she hoped some day to be able to buy.

Carolyn was recovering from a twenty-year addiction to crack cocaine, and she would not allow Fulmer to use her face, nor at first her real name, in her portrait.  Carolyn came from a stable home and had enjoyed a successful career working for the City of New York and on Wall street before becoming an addict.  Fear of prison as a result of five felony convictions finally drove her to rehabilitation.  Fulmer uses Carolyn’s actual words from her interview, making this “writing on the wall” a narrative about healing.  Carolyn herself is shown with her back to a broken mirror, showing her Bible and collection of shoes.

Full of pride in her college education and career successes, Rachel believed that Fulmer intended to take a formal photograph of her, so she dressed in her best suit for the interview.  Rachel found life in the homeless shelter so wasteful of human potential that she had become a community activist.  Fulmer views her role in creating this panel as a facilitator of Rachel’s personal narrative.  Rachel’s own words and photographs—of her sons, a derelict Catholic church, and the “People Mover” tram (the only mass transit train system in Detroit) dominate the panel.  To highlight the personal narrative, Fulmer uses a muted sepia palette and contrasts of light and scale.

Dona is a poet, writer, singer, and actress.  While homeless, she took shelter in her Geo Prism because in Detroit if one must choose between home and car, one chooses the car as the only way to get to work.  The arrival of winter eventually forced Dona into a shelter.  While staying at the Salvation Army, Dona would meditate in nearby Riverfront Park, where she also composed the poem “River of Tears.”  The motif of the river runs through Fulmer’s portrait of Dona, which depicts mostly outdoor scenes beyond the confining walls of the shelter.  Homelessness, Dona is saying, is about despair and hope.  The full text of “River of Tears” is reproduced, with Dona’s permission, in Fulmer’s essay in Frontiers.