Penn Station Baltimore Maryland

Just as I am about to lose faith, I meet someone like Tyrone.

Penn Station in Baltimore is the 8th busiest train depot in the country. A homeless man who called himself Tyronne wanted to be photographed after I told him I take pictures and write about people. We also shared common stories about living with epilepsy. (bryan farley)

Penn Station in Baltimore is the 8th busiest train depot in the country. A homeless man who called himself Tyronne wanted to be photographed after I told him I take pictures and write about people. We also shared common stories about living with epilepsy. (bryan farley)

I am in the Washington, D.C. Metro area for the 2012 National Walk for Epilepsy. Yesterday, I flew into Baltimore Washington International Airport.  I spent the night in Baltimore and took the MARC train this morning from Baltimore’s Penn Station to Union Station. Since I visited Baltimore last year, Penn Station celebrated its 100 year anniversary.

While I was photographing Jonathan Borofsky’s Male/Female aluminum sculpture in front of the train depot, a homeless man approached me.  We both saw an opportunity.

Penn Station in Baltimore is the 8th busiest train depot in the country. A homeless man who called himself Tyronne wanted to be photographed after I told him I take pictures and write about people. We also shared common stories about living with epilepsy. (bryan farley)

I probably over share. Sometimes this is a character flaw, but other times, I meet people with stories they want to share. Tyronne needed money, but he probably wanted me to take his photo even more. He wasn’t begging for attention, but he appreciated the interaction. He appreciated the food and change too.

Penn Station in Baltimore is the 8th busiest train depot in the country. A homeless man who called himself Tyronne wanted to be photographed after I told him I take pictures and write about people. We also shared common stories about living with epilepsy. (bryan farley)This is not the most interesting part of the story, because I meet interesting people every day. After I had already taken his photo, I told Tyrone that I was leaving to Washington, D.C. for the walk for epilepsy. Tyrone shared that he also has seizures. Without prompting, he told me the types of medications he has taken.

He knew more about epilepsy than most people, so I believed him. Whether he will make it to D.C. for Saturday’s walk I do not know yet, but I was grateful to meet another person on the same path.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 29th, 2012 at 10:25 pm. It is filed under People and Portraits, Travel and tagged with . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

4 Responses to “Penn Station Baltimore Maryland”

  1. Bryan Farley Photography says:
    March 31, 2012 at 6:46 pm

    He was very kind. I would have enjoyed spending more time with him.

  2. Bree says:
    April 16, 2012 at 8:53 am

    Great story!
    It’s awesome that you were able to connect with a homeless man and listen to his story. Many people tend to shun homeless people away because they are stereotyped as beggars but in this case, it was different and you were able to see and capture that:)

    • bryan farley says:
      April 22, 2012 at 12:43 am

      Bree,

      Thanks for reading the post and seeing Tyronne’s humanity. He was a really neat person. Sometimes I surprise myself and meet new people. It can be easy to miss these opportunities. One of the great things about traveling is that I my patterns are broken and I notice people.

      Good to see you again. I will look at your site tonight.

      bf

    • bryan farley says:
      April 29, 2012 at 8:52 pm

      Bree,

      not sure if I already replied. I saw your website. You have some excellent photos. I also added more posts after the convention.

      keep in touch.

      bf