There’s a new movement afoot: Help Portrait. Photographers around the world will grab their cameras on December 12, find people in need and take their photo. When the prints are ready they are delivered. Simple.
Help Portrait, the idea of professional photographer Jeremy Cowart, and hopes to provide photographs to people who don’t have access to such services.
“This is about giving the pictures, not taking them,” says Cowart on the Help Portrait Website. “This holiday season, you have a chance to give a family something they may never had before – a family portrait.”
More than 500 groups in cities around the world have sprung up and are getting ready for the December 12th shoot. Montreal, Canada, Las Vegas, America, Copenhagen, Denmark, and Sao Paulo, Brazil all have groups of volunteer photographers ready to take part.
In a note on the Help Portrait Website, Cowart says:
I love hearing the naysayers say things like “The last thing a homeles person needs is a picture.”
Then I love seeing the reality.
I love seeing the 53-year-old man dance in front of the camera because he’s never had his photo taken. Ever.
I love seeing the 45-year-old single mom work the camera and have that chance to live out the dream of modeling since she was a little girl.
I love the tears of a woman hugging me because this is the first photo she’s seen of herself since losing 300lbs 8 years ago.
I love taking the very first photo of a 5-year-old child and being able to give that to his mother.
Shanghai, China’s flickr meetup group is taking part in the Help Portrait event. They plan to set up at a school for the children of migrant workers and shoot individual and class photos, and family portraits. If you will be in Shanghai on December 12 get involved, see Shanghai flickr meetup event sign-up thread.
See the Help Portrait website for further information on the December 12 shoot or the Help Portrait Community Site to find a group near you.