All aboard our house! The family who lived in a school bus – in pictures

Dotan Saguy documented the Reis family’s trials and tribulations during their 10-month stop in the City of Angels as they struggled – as Saguy notes in his book – “to make it as vehicle dwellers, improvised mechanics, unconventional parents, Mormonism doubters, and experimental breadwinners – while seeking happiness as a family”. Nowhere to Go But Everywhere by Dotan Saguy is published by Kehrer Verlag Books in September
‘I took a magical photographic journey with the five of them, hoping to learn about their world, hoping I could show the beauty of their life and help lessen the stigma suffered by vehicle dwellers,’ says Saguy. ‘In the process, I made wise, fascinating friends who taught me a lot about myself’
Kal-El sits on top of the family bus, gazing at the street like a young Tarzan watching over the jungle. Read more in the Observer
While vehicle-dwelling is not a new phenomenon, the numbers of people living in this way are sharply on the rise. Today, more than 16,000 people in Los Angeles county live in a vehicle. Just as with the rest of the homeless population, individual circumstances are diverse. The Reis family decided to live in a bus to spend more time together. For them, it was a rational decision that cut their living expenses by 90%, while allowing Ismael Reis to stay at home with his family instead of having to work long hours, seven days a week, to pay rent
The family bus departs from a Mormon church car park. Ismail said: ‘One day, I was home in our apartment in Delaware, and I was just walking around thinking: I know I have everything I wanted to have, but I’m still not happy. In Brazil, we were struggling to afford a car or air conditioning, even after saving for five years. We wanted all those things. Here, it was just a matter of months before we had everything we ever dreamed of’
Ismael explains: ‘A big benefit of this lifestyle in my opinion is family relationships. We relate to each other very differently than when we had a house. I believe that living together in such tight quarters helps [Greice and me] as individuals and as a couple to get to know each other better and get to know ourselves better. To find ourselves …’
He continues: ‘I don’t think my dad knew half of what I know about my kids when I was their age, because he was always at work. We never had any time to spend together. He didn’t have time to get to know me. That’s why I used to fight a lot with my parents. I didn’t feel like they knew me.’ Here, the family is parked for the day by the Pacific coast highway with an unobstructed ocean view
Saguy captures the family’s daily activities – preparing meals, eating together, doing chores, having home school lessons, playing with toys, and enjoying alone time. There are no conventional meals in the Reis household: each family member has their own dietary preferences, eats whenever they’re hungry and there’s no such thing as a dinner table
Izzy and his two daughters enjoy the view from the top of the family bus as the Los Angeles city lights flicker below. The book title is taken from a Jack Kerouac line: ‘There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars’
With three active young children sharing a few square feet of space, the bus quickly resembles something of a war zone, with toys and craft materials scattered everywhere
The Reis family experienced happy times but also tough times. Here, 10-year-old Kal-El is visibly distraught at the sight of his home being taken away by a tow truck. During another hard times their bus broke down, they got kicked out of the car park that served as their refuge, their baby girl hit her head and had to be rushed to hospital and the parents’ faith in Mormonism collapsed as Greice had to get an abortion
All this came after a tumultuous cross-country journey during which they ran out of money for food and fuel and Ismael was forced to beg. He said: ‘Being on the road and seeing different cultures and different people made us realise that it would be impossible for the Mormon church to be the only true church on Earth as we had been taught’
This heartening book transports the viewer into the Reis family’s bustling, cramped living quarters where parents and children live on top of one another but don’t seem to mind
Six-year-old Flor drags her three-year-old sister Lua by the hand as they play in front of their parents’ improvised vintage clothing display on Venice’s bustling Abbot Kinney Boulevard
Greice hugs her two daughters in the back of the bus