Andrew Hudson injects himself with heroin next to an angel statue in the Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles. "It's miserable quitting or trying - trying anything," said Hudson. Skid Row is home to thousands of chronically homeless people on the edge of the downtown. No one shares the same story of how they ended up in the center of poverty and despair. The streets are ruled by drugs day and night. Help exists, but too many turn to drugs to cope with their problems.
A paramedic examines a drug addict lying on a sidewalk unconscious in Los Angeles' Skid Row area, home to the nation's largest concentration of homeless people.
A mentally disabled woman stares at a camera as a homeless drug addict, who said his name was April Jane, sits on a sidewalk asking for money in downtown Los Angeles. The latest nationwide homeless count shows that 4 of every 10 people living on the street are severely mentally ill or have a serious drug addiction.
Homeless addicts Brandice Josey, left, uses a straw to blow a puff of fentanyl smoke into the mouth of Ryan Smith, who is high on the drug, in Los Angeles, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022.
A homeless drug addict, who said his name is Barbie, smokes crystal meth in his tent in downtown Los Angeles. The latest nationwide homeless count shows that 4 of every 10 people living on the street are severely mentally ill or have a serious drug addiction.
Forensic assistant Laurentiu Bigu left, and investigator Ryan Parraz from the Los Angeles County coroner's office covers the body of a homeless man found dead on a sidewalk in Los Angeles. The 60-year-old man died from the effects of methamphetamine, according to his autopsy report. Nearly 2,000 homeless people died in the city from April 2020 to March 2021, a 56% increase from the previous year, according to a report released by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Overdose was the leading cause of death, killing more than 700.
A homeless man injects a Narcan nasal spray into the nose of a female addict who appears to be overdosed in Los Angeles, Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022. For too many people strung out on the drug, the sleep that follows a fentanyl hit is permanent. The highly addictive and potentially lethal drug has become a scourge across America and is taking a toll on the growing number of people living on the streets of Los Angeles.
A mentally ill homeless woman mumbles to herself while standing in "the zombie alley" with a crate over her head in Los Angeles.
A mentally-ill homeless woman cries out while holding a pay phone after running through several blocks of downtown Los Angeles, yelling and screaming. The woman, who said her name was Kara Miller when asked in September, is a Skid Row resident. Wandering around the streets where drugs rule, Miller talks to herself almost always and occasionally screams and curses as if seeing a ghost.
David Hernandez, a 62-year-old homeless man, shuts the flap after crawling into his makeshift bed made with cardboard boxes, Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022, in Los Angeles. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declared a state of emergency Monday to grapple with the city's out-of-control homeless crisis, bidding to move swiftly to get thousands of unhoused people off her city's streets.
A homeless woman hunches over on a sidewalk while her partner smokes rock cocaine in the Skid Row area of downtown Los Angeles.
Victoria Filipy, who lives in a small homeless RV encampment with her dogs, fills water bottles from a fire hydrant in Los Angeles.
Church personnel inspect damage inside the Odesa Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa, Ukraine, Sunday, July 23, 2023, following Russian missile attacks.
An elderly woman walks out of her apartment, destroyed in Russian missile attacks in Odesa, Ukraine.
A dove painted by artist TvBoy adorns the wall of a building damaged by Russian shelling attacks in Irpin, Ukraine.
Two women with mock AK-47 rifles participate in firearms training for civilians in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Dressed as a soldier, Artem Mihaylenko, 7, visits the Independence Square with his mother in Kyiv, Ukraine.
A woman takes a nap on her husband's lap on a bench at Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine. Life in the capital of a war-torn country seems normal on the surface. In the mornings, people rush to their work holding cups of coffee. Streets are filled with cars, and in the evenings, restaurants are packed. But the details tell another story.
Flanked by trainers, Denys Abdulin, a former Ukrainian soldier blinded in the war, learns to use a kitchen knife during a cooking class at a rehabilitation center designed for soldiers who lost their vision on the battlefield, near Rivne, Ukraine.
A trainer holds out his arm to prevent Ivan Soroka, a former Ukrainian soldier blinded in the war, from colliding with a pole while helping him navigate the streets of Rivne, Ukraine, Friday, July 21, 2023, as part of training at a rehabilitation center designed for soldiers who lost their vision on the battlefield.
Ivan Soroka, a 27-year-old former Ukrainian soldier blinded in the war, sits for a photo in his room at a rehabilitation center designed for soldiers who lost their vision on the battlefield, near Rivne, Ukraine. Over the course of several weeks, the veterans, accompanied by their families, reside at the rehabilitation center. Most receive their first canes here, take their first walks around urban and natural environments without assistance, and learn to operate programs on phones and computers.
Firefighters monitor the Franklin Fire approaching Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif.
Inmate firefighters walk along Highway 120 after a burnout operation as firefighters continue to battle the Rim Fire near Yosemite National Park, Calif.
California Wildfires Fire retardant is dropped on a burning hillside in Malibu, Calif.
A firefighter carries a water hose as a large painting saved from a wildfire is propped against an SUV in the Bel Air district of Los Angeles.
A person walks amid the destruction left behind by the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.
John Borbone searches through his fire-ravaged property after the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Liz Zaret searches for salvageable items in what remains of her home destroyed by the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles
Smoke rises from the Wallow Fire in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, Ariz.
Chaplain Kevin Deegan prays for COVID-19 patient Pedro Basulto while on a video call with the patient's daughter, Grace, at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in the Mission Hills section of Los Angeles, Thursday, Nov. 19, 2020. "These video calls have been a lifeline for families," said Deegan. "It can be emotionally exhausting and very draining, but it also an honor to be a bridge for the family."
Nurse Cindy Kelbert, left, checks on a critically ill COVID-19 patient through a glass door as she is surrounded by other nurses at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif.
Romelia Navarro, 64, sobs while sitting at the bedside of her dying husband, Antonio, as his heart rate drops to zero in a COVID-19 unit at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., Friday, July 31, 2020. Antonio was nurse Michel Younkin's first COVID-19 patient to pass on her watch.
Registered nurse Bryan Hofilena attaches "COVID Patient" stickers on a body bag of a patient who died of coronavirus at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Los Angeles. Hospitals across the country are struggling to cope with burnout among doctors, nurses, and other workers, already buffeted by a crush of patients from the ongoing surge of the COVID-19 delta variant and now bracing for the fallout of another highly transmissible mutation.
Farm worker Jorge Americano receives the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on his arm, which bears a tattoo depicting Jesus, at Tudor Ranch in Mecca, Calif.
In this photo created with an in-camera multiple exposure, registered nurse Verlin Frazier, part of a group of nurses who had been treating coronavirus patients in an intensive care unit, stands for a photo in front of a patient board in the empty COVID-19 ICU at Providence Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, Calif.
Registered nurse Anthony Wilkinson, part of a group of nurses who had been treating coronavirus patients in an intensive care unit, stands for a photo in the empty COVID-19 ICU at Providence Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, Calif.
Registered nurse Jamie Corcoran, part of a group of nurses who had been treating coronavirus patients in an intensive care unit, stands for a photo in the empty COVID-19 ICU at Providence Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, Calif.
Registered nurse Debbie Wooters, part of a group of nurses who had been treating coronavirus patients in an intensive care unit, holds a group picture taken with her fellow nurses in the empty COVID-19 ICU at Providence Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, Calif.
A waitress in protective gear serves a table in a restaurant inside the Shangri-La Hotel at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Workers disinfect the ice rink after the women's gold medal hockey game at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Seal hunter Wilbur Kuzuzuk, 53, drags a spotted seal, his only catch of the day, to the edge of the lagoon in Shishmaref, Alaska.
With framed family photos hanging on the wall, 80-year-old Clifford Weyiouanna, a respected village elder and former reindeer herder, rests on a sofa in his home in Shishmaref, Alaska.
Climate Migration Alaska Disappearing Island Janet Kiyutelluk, 57, center right, motions to her granddaughter to lower her voice during a singspiration at the Shishmaref Lutheran Church in Shishmaref, Alaska.
Climate Migration Alaska Disappearing Island A polar bear's hide hangs on a rack near the village's airstrip in Shishmaref, Alaska.
Pulling a sled with fuel containers in the lagoon, Joe Eningowuk, 62, left, and his 7-year-old grandson, Isaiah Kakoona, head toward their boat through the shallow water while getting ready for a two-day camping trip in Shishmaref, Alaska.
Dressed in a white cap and gown, Carmen Turner, 17, a senior at the Shishmaref School, sits for a graduation photo in Shishmaref, Alaska.
The northern lights appear over Shishmaref, Alaska. Rising sea levels, flooding, increased erosion and loss of protective sea ice and land have led residents of this island community to vote twice to relocate. But more than six years after the last vote, Shishmaref remains in the same place because the relocation is too costly.
Prisoner-students majoring in communications, Jamal Lewis, from right, Lambert Pabriaga, and Sherman Dorsey, walk to their class at Folsom State Prison in Folsom, Calif.
Incarcerated graduates, who finished various educational and vocational programs in prison, wait for the start of their graduation ceremony at Folsom State Prison in Folsom, Calif.
Incarcerated graduate Jose Catalan poses for photos after his graduation ceremony at Folsom State Prison in Folsom, Calif., Thursday, May 25, 2023. Catalan earned his bachelor's degree in communications through the Transforming Outcomes Project at Sacramento State.
A city worker posts a flier on the crowded bulletin board of a government office in Bucheon, South Korea. The flier, featuring two photos of Nicole Motta, an adoptee now residing in Los Angeles, taken as a toddler and an adult, was provided by the Global Overseas Adoptees' Link as part of Motta's search for her birth family.
Yooree Kim, who was 11 when she was sent by an adoption agency to a couple in France, sits for a portrait as tears well up in her eyes in her apartment in Seoul, South Korea.
Yooree Kim holds up a blouse given to her by the adoption agency that sent her to France when she was 11 years old, at her apartment in Seoul, South Korea.
Kenneth Barthel, who was adopted by a single parent in Hawaii at 6 years old, is hugged by his wife, Napela, at the Sisters of Mary in Busan, South Korea. In the foreground, Sister Bulkeia, left, and Paek Kyeong-mi from Global Overseas Adoptees' Link discuss a flyer designed to uncover the details of Barthel's early life and find his birth family.
Maja Andersen, an adoptee visiting from Denmark to search for her birth family, hugs Sister Christina Ahn at Star of the Sea orphanage in Incheon, South Koreawhile visiting the facility to look for details of her adoption. She had loved being hugged, the orphanage documents said, and had sparkling eyes. "Thank you so much, thank you so much," Andersen repeated in a trembling voice. There was comfort in that, she had been hugged, she had smiled.
Michaela Dietz, an adoptee from South Korea, holds a baby photo of Robyn Joy Park, who was also adopted from South Korea as an infant and whose identity was switched, next to Park's newborn daughter, Rae, while visiting Park at her home in Pasadena, Calif. Park hasn't found her real parents. She thinks often of the girl whose identity she was given, and wonders: what happened to her?
A teardrop rolls down the cheek of Kenneth Barthel, who was adopted from South Korea at the age of six, as he sits in a minivan in Busan, South Korea after spending the day trying to uncover the details of his early life and find his birth family.
Adoptee Nicole Motta, left, and her birth father, Jang Dae-chang, wipe tears after an emotional reunion at the Eastern Social Welfare Society in Seoul. The moment they hugged, Motta, adopted to the United States in 1985, didn't need DNA test results, she knew she'd come from this man. "I am a sinner for not finding you," he said. "I think I have your nose," Motta said softly. They both sobbed.
Han Tae-soon's notebook sits on a table at her home in Anyang, South Korea. Han, who is in her 70s, has notebooks feverishly annotated with English translations, written during countless hours trying to learn her daughter's language.
A woman, who declined to give her name, is hugged by her husband as they chat between the border fence separating Nogales, Ariz., and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.
A demonstrator sleeps inside an encampment set up by pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the UCLA campus Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in Los Angeles.
Wearing school uniforms, students at Yamano Beauty College bow to a speaker during a ceremony held to celebrate the school's 83rd-year anniversary in Tokyo. More than 1,200 students from all over Japan are attending the school to be hair stylists or makeup artists.
Wearing a Superman costume, Toly Shtapenko, of Ukraine, takes a long stride along the Hollywood Walk of Fame to impress tourists in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. While the Hollywood we see in movies is a place of glamour and beautiful celebrities, the cast of superheroes filling Hollywood Boulevard is frequently anything but. Many are people struggling to make a buck as they pursue their dream of stardom.
A man walks by angel wings used as part of a store display in Beverly Hills, Calif.
In this photo taken with a drone, two surfers wade through water in Huntington Beach, Calif.
Workers clean the floor at Petco Park before a baseball game between the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers in San Diego.
A lifeguard watches as fireworks light up the air during an Independence Day celebration in San Clemente, Calif.
A woman enters an exhibition hall at NTT Intercommunication Center in Tokyo, featuring an interactive installation artwork titled "Kinesis #3—Dissolving Field" by Hiroaki Umeda.
A girl and a woman walk past a swimming pool at Ruben F. Salazar Park in Los Angeles.
soap bubbles fly as a boy rides a wave at Taito Beach located next to Tsurigasaki, a venue for surfing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, in Isumi, Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo.
A woman walks with an umbrella to shield herself from the sun in Tokyo.
Donnie Guzman, foreground, listens to music in the shade at Pershing Square Friday, June 1, 2018.
Usher Lloyd Slack stands in a shaft of light as he inspects the seats at Angel Stadium before a baseball game between the Los Angeles Angels and the Oakland Athletics in Anaheim, Calif.
A woman looks at Chiharu Shiota's art installation titled "Uncertain Journey" at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo.