Help-Portrait

Jen, I think that’s a great idea and would love to contribute. Personally, I’d like to see portraits made in more contextual environments; perhaps shelters of various types, St. Anthony’s, work centers for the challenged, etc – where there can be real engagement and care. I think equipment needed is very modest; natural light and some off-camera flash being fine.

I’ve done a lot of street portraits of people and always carry prints in my bag to give to people when encountered again – it’s a rewarding experience.

I’ll kick the idea around with the others on Caliber. My only desire is that the engagements are real and meaningful. I see soooo many exploitive cheap shots of the helpless/homeless without any surrounding context or purpose on various forums and flickr streams simply because the images appear (to some) as striking visual eye-candy and it’s an easy way to get a portrait of a person investing little time. That kind of exploitation is something that troubles me greatly and cannot do; especially if they’re going to be eventually posted on forums and blogs. I think a larger more purposeful engagement with organizations that help those in need would be great.

Be glad to kick this around more if you’d like…