Dignity in Exile Stories of Struggle and Hope from a Modern American Shanty Town

Situated on a toxic leaf composting facility and the Portland International Airport is Dignity Village, the first city-recognized shantytown and a place the dejected, jobless, and impoverished outcasts of society call home. A powerful study of homelessness and the human spirit, this photo-ethnographic account follows the villagers for six months as they fight to overcome lives beleaguered with abuse, incarceration, addiction, mental health issues, and the stigma of poverty. The result is a stunning portraiture of the people who live there, explored through high-quality reporting and the remarkable photography of Nigel Dickson, and an honest visual representation of the flame of dignity that burns deep inside those in exile.

Nigel Dickson is a commercial photographer whose work has been featured in Esquire, Fast Company, Rolling Stone Magazine, and Vogue. He lives in Toronto. Eric Weissman is a research associate at the Concordia Centre for Studies in Broadcasting and at the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia. He lives in Montreal.