Woman spent 10 years photographing the homeless – then she discovered her dad was among them.

Woman spends 10 years photographing the homeless, then realises her dad is among them

Diana Kim, 30, first learnt about photography through her father, who at one time owned a photography studio on the island of Maui where she grew up. But when her parents split up, she says her dad became ‘absent’. She lost touch with him as she spent years living with in different places, with friends, relatives, occasionally in cars – ‘roughing it’ she says.
In 2003, now a photography student, Diana began a long-term photo project about the homeless people living around her. All she knew at the time about her dad was the little her grandmother could tell her – that his mental health had deteriorated and no one knew where he was living.
Ten years later, Diana was in Honolulu, continuing to document Hawaii’s forgotten homeless, when she made the heartbreaking discovery her dad was among them. She told NBC News the moment of realisation was ‘devastating’. Over the next few years, Diana attempted to reconnect with her dad, and, in many ways, to ‘fix’ him (he suffers with severe schizophrenia), by turning her lens on him.
It wasn’t until her dad suffered a heart-attack in October 2014, that he agreed to let her help him. Today, he’s doing well and is currently looking for a part-time job.