On December 12th, over 7000 photographers in 608 locations in 58 countries collaborated with a common cause. They used their time, talent and equipment to give back to the community by giving free portraits to those in need. The organization that made this all possible is called Help Portrait. Help Portrait was founded several months ago by Jeremy Coward and the idea spread like wildfire thanks to youtube.
In Orlando about 40 photographers went to the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida to help out. The Coalition for the Homeless is more than a shelter; it is a comprehensive program designed to empower homeless men, women and children to become self-sufficient. In addition to food and shelter, the Coalition provides programs and services including education, job skills training, case management, licensed day care, child development programs and housing placement.
When I arrived at the Coalition with Tisse Mallon, we were given a quick tour of the facility by Michael Hajek and shown all the rooms that had been set up with lighting and backdrops. The rooms were small and filled with photography equipment making things cramped. Tisse set up a spot to shoot portraits outside using a large bush as a backdrop and started to work with two other photographers. My original plan was to shadow Tisse throughout the day but the thought of sketching thousands of leaves outside was to daunting. I decided to sit in this tight little room and started to sketch one of the two makeup artists. I didn’t sketch the photo shoots themselves since each shoot was over after just 15 shots and that is to a hectic pace for a sketch.
There were several news crews shooting video right from the start. They interviewed one mother who was having a family portrait taken for the first time ever. She cried as she thanked the Coalition, God and all the people who had come out to make this photo shoot possible.
In one day the Orlando photographers shot over 350 portraits. For me it was rewarding to watch the woman’s reactions when the makeup artists showed them how they looked. Amy Tacner who is the makeup artist in the first sketch, said that the makeup for a fashion photo shoot could take up to two hours. Here she listened to what each person needed and worked with them, sometimes just removing some of the shine from their skin and always spending the time to make the person feel and look special. She had an amazing rapport with each person she worked with. Everyone is unique, and beautiful, and on this day everyone was reminded of that. As photos were taken the room was filled with laughter as the photographers and their subjects worked together, joking, connecting and sharing. With so many photographers on hand they started to take pictures of each other as the flood of clients slowed. I believe the gifts given this day go far beyond the images captured. What was freely given was respect, human dignity and love. Some gifts as simple as they are to give, are priceless. On this day men and women helped change the world one portrait at a time.
The Singing Menorah
Brian Feldman had been ribbing me for some time about all the Singing Christmas Trees sketches I have been posting here on Analog Artist Digital World. At an 8 AM Meeting of MOOM (Meeting of Orlando Minds) on Friday, Brian suggested he might stage a performance of the Singing Menorah at the Track Shack which is at 1104 North Mills Avenue right in the area where I planned to host an Artists and Writers Crawl. He pointed out that Track Shack had one of the few storefront Hanukkah displays in Orlando. The Crawl was only a day away but Brian managed to throw together a stellar performance. He had help from Omar Delarosa who co-wrote many of the lyrics and performed on guitar. Knowing the times of the stops along the Crawl route we agreed that he could start his performance around 8PM when the Crawlers were moving from the first stop, The Peacock Room to the Second stop, Wills Pub.
The Crawl developed a glitch from the start, when Tisse Mallon and I arrived at The Peacock room to find that it would not open for another two hours. I wrote a note and stuck it on the door so other Crawlers would know to go to the second stop, Will’s pub. Because I wandered around and introduced myself to all the people who arrived at Will’s, my sketch was not a very focused. When it was time to wander up to the next stop, I was still splashing watercolors on the sketch. Other crawlers headed out but I kept working. When I arrived at Track Shack where Brian was to perform, there were a crowd of Crawlers sitting in lawn chairs on the sidewalk looking into the storefront window. Omar was playing guitar. At the appointed time Brian walked out having to squeeze in the space between the plate glass and the display wall.
The performance was hilarious and fun. New Hanukkah lyrics had been written for a number of pop tunes. The Menorah that Brian was sporting consisted of cardboard tubes wrapped in tin foil. There were Hanukkah cards leaning up against the storefront window and for some reason a small Mickey Mouse sat watching the audience. Emma Hughes handed out dreidels to everyone in the audience when Brian sang a dreidel song. For the final number, Brian called in his back up dancer named Willoughby Mariano. It seemed most appropriate that she had a cast on her left leg from her foot up to the knee, but she still performed and gave a new meaning to the saying, “Break a leg”. Later, Emma handed out sparklers and when the performance was over everyone lit them up and the lights and sparks danced. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a sparkler since I was still scratching away in my sketch book.
Several times, cars stopped dead on Mills Avenue to see what the excitement was about and several cars honked. However, my attention was sharply focused on the show. This is without a doubt the greatest Singing Menorah performance I have ever seen. Well, yes, it is the only Singing Menorah performance I have ever seen. For the remainder of the Crawl I heard people commenting on how surprised they were that Brian had such a good singing voice. Brian truly gave the Singing Christmas trees a run for their money.