I visited East St. Louis last Saturday and attempted to make some quality photographs and conversation. It was a pretty rough day. I managed to walk away with a roll of film exposed and very very little interaction with residents. I delivered two portraits to people I had photographed on the last visit. The first photograph was comprised of a family, and the second featured two young men and a young woman, all in their mid 20s. It was a very depressing and discouraging day to say the least. I left an hour before sunset, almost admitting my defeat for the day and retreating back to Carbondale for the evening. The project continues to be extremely challenging on many levels. It is creatively and artistically challenging to create photographs that are singularly different from each other because of the uniformness of the housing project. Many of my backgrounds become overused and repeatable. It is emotionally challenging to document a community of people that you can only visit once a week, and not share their experiences at all times. I constantly ask myself why I am doing this project, but I somehow always find the resolve within to continue working no matter how discouraged I become. I am planning on visiting again this Wednesday.