Tim Caffery is perhaps the freest spirit of anyone who’s been involved with the How We See It project. There isn’t a topic that Tim doesn’t have an opinion on or that he hasn’t read about. Stop him on any random day, if you can find him in the first place, and he’ll likely a half-dozen or so books on him, each filled with notes and highlights he can recall almost instantaneously in conversation.

42 years old, Tim has been unhoused for a while. Always one to comment on how the lives we lead often compel us to drift from one another, Tim’s work is very much about perspective. Tracing the lines and angles of his photographs imparts an understanding of architecture, scale and even larger sociological concepts like wealth inequality. 

Tim’s work is as much from the viewpoint of an unhoused individual as it is commenting on the rest of the world. It quite literally is how he sees other people and the heights, or lack thereof, they’re currently living in. He once said that “People that own stuff are ridiculous. Just because you have money to invest doesn’t mean you have ideas or knowledge.”

Tim’s famously outgoing nature makes him a joy to converse with. If you get the chance for yourself, you’ll probably learn all about his opinion on current political affairs and get a quick review of whichever author whose catalogue of work he’s currently reading through. Like a philosopher, Tim’s photographs and presence give the audience a lot to consider. But it’s Tim’s approachability that makes it all the more appreciable. As much as he has to share, he’s keen on continuing that learning, especially from people who come from places or have worked in different disciplines than he has experience in.

 He’s a cooperative soul, more interested in making things work together with others than with pleasing anyone else higher up on the food chain. Tim once said that “People that own stuff are ridiculous. Just because you have money to invest doesn’t mean you have ideas or knowledge,” a reflection on his past in the private sector where he constantly felt constrained by the whims of middle managers and higher ups. To him, one benefit of being unhoused is no longer having to bow to that sort of thing. Which isn’t to say that Tim doesn’t know the struggles of living on the street. He deals with harassment from police and city officials all the time. He’ll often talk about how sanitation workers have been ramping up the ate at which encampments get swept up and moved in the greater Los Angeles area. He’s no evangelist of some kind of homeless nobility. 

 It’s just that, Tim believes that people are capable of doing much more than they believe. Whether or not they see that, however, is merely a matter of perspective.