Last fall, a number of Denison students preserved what has become a college tradition, spending the nights of one particularly chilly week on the Academic Quad, shivering under blankets and inside ragged cardboard boxes. This alternative notion of a “night out” was pursued as part of the Homelessness and Hunger Awareness Week, sponsored each year by the Denison Community Association to call attention to the plights of the less fortunate.
Professor of Art Karl Sandin took up the same challenge off the hill, spending much of the past year wandering the streets and backroads of Licking County, photographing the real world of homelessness. As is the nature of an artist, Sandin set out to see what others miss, and then help others see it and maybe even understand it. Sandin’s work in reframing where and what housing is, for people living on edges and at extremes, resulted in a presentation and series of images, some of which are on this page. Talking to housing professionals, community groups, churches, even at academic conferences, Sandin has helped lift a veil that had left many homeless people hidden in plain sight. Sandin has also studied and lectured about how poor planning has contributed to the deterioration of Newark’s southeast side, and he has begun proposing new, sustainable housing strategies for the area. As a result of this captivating body of work, Sandin received the Licking County Coalition for Housing Community Service Award for 2005.