25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘My life expectancy is short': America's most vulnerable
Mark Laita's Soft White Underbelly project was born from his 2009 photo series Created Equal. It reveals raw glimpses of humanity's most vulnerable communities, encouraging a conversation around the individuals and realities that often go unseen. These new portraits, shot against stark and simple backdrops, highlight the individuality and humanity of his subjects. You can watch a video interview with Crazy here. Soft White Underbelly is at Fahey Klein gallery, Los Angeles, until 1 March 2025
The Soft White Underbelly project has garnered international attention through its accompanying video interviews, which have amassed more than 1bn views. You can watch an interview with Caroline here
By emphasising the lived experiences of his sitters, Laita's photographs eschew judgment and focus instead on storytelling. Each image in the series captures a sense of unguarded honesty and reflects the vulnerability and complexity of life on the edges of society. You can watch an interview with Rebecca here
Asher: 'I've lived on Skid Row, slept on the floor, and it was a really tough life, you know, not only dealing with drug dealers and prostitutes and the police, but I could never rest. In Skid Row, it's so much negative energy: police sirens, helicopters, shootings, dogs attacking people, car crashes. Even when you're sleeping, you're not sleeping because you're being bombarded by all this noise and negativity and it just affects you so much that after seven years I was completely done.' You can watch an interview with Asher here
Izzy: 'I've just been so, so fucking sad … like, to the point where I just didn't want to feel it any more. I had different suicide attempts. But it's important for people to know that it's not like that for ever. I'm just glad that I made it out when I did and realised that I can be happy and I deserve to be happy.' You can watch an interview with Izzy here
Max: 'I can't say that I ever want to be, like, better off financially because I never have been and I don't really see a need to. Will I be living this lifestyle for ever? Probably, my life expectancy is really short' You can watch a video with Max and Sid here
Johnny: 'I told him, dad, I'm here today to tell you that I'm sorry for being a bad son. I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you. That I didn't live up to your standards. And then my father started crying and said: 'No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I was a bad father. I'm sorry I didn't give you a good childhood and I'm sorry I couldn't control my drinking and that you had to suffer because of it.' Twenty years of pain, anger and frustration. It was crushed. We hugged it out and now we have a great relationship.' You can watch an interview with Johnny here
Ruby: 'We raised five acres of farro beans, peddled them through the mining camps, and then we'd take a load of groceries back to White Oak to the store from the breaks along down there all the way to White Oak. We would sell everybody groceries, stopped at their house till we got home and we barely had anything from the store when we got there.' You can watch an interview with Ruby here
Rene: 'They're tryin' to low ball you and I'm not ever low balling myself. They be asking to see me for, like, $60 and I'm like, 'What the hell do I look like?' I know I'm out here doing what I'm doing, but it's, like, damn! I look like I'm worth $60?' You can watch an interview with Rene here
