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This last friday I photographed portraits at the Bellingham/Whatcom County Project Homeless Connect event.
It was an intense event run by my college friend Dan Hamill at the Whatcom Volunteer Center. The event brings together all the various social service organizations that serve the homeless/transient population in Whatcom County. The portraits are a nice added touch for a population that probably doesn’t consider portraits high on their list of priorities. The portraits are printed out as I shoot them and give directly to the clients–as many have no type of address, this is the only way to deliver them.
The shear numbers were staggering: between 300-400 families and approximately 675 men, women, and children. I did 71 separate sessions, 300 images. It was exhausting to light and photograph a constant stream of people, but it felt good to do positive for a group that doesn’t have a lot of positives in their lives.
I can’t post the portrait images as the pictures are tightly controlled–there are photos of women from abuse shelters and children, and they can’t be posted online for obvious reasons. The gentleman in the picture above signed a waiver allowing this image to be posted.
As my friend said “That’s wonderful / intense / impressive / sad / …the gamut.” I couldn’t agree more.