Look up "The White Underbelly" on Youtube. This photographer/filmmaker, Mark Laita, has a huge series on people he's met over the years. The Whitaker family is the most famous of his studies, but there are lots of other interesting stories. Laita started taking pictures of "street people" and found that they all had stories that led to their current situations. He pays them for their time and has even set up fundraisers for some, like the Whitaker family.