Picture to the People
By Jeffrey Pena
3 September 2008
We lived in a small apartment on the top floor of a four family townhouse on the east side of the Mission District of San Francisco. Below us lived three Mexican families. One family, who had four kids, could not afford to get portraits of their children. This made me realize that many people in our neighborhood could not afford the luxury of a good portrait. I grabbed my Canon DSLR, my tripod and a chair and set out to give the people in my neighborhood free portraits.
Public art projects have been an important part of an organization that I recently started called Curbs and Stoops. Our idea was to extend art works to the boundaries that define our cities, our curbs and our stoops. We did not want art to be a destination, such as a museum, instead we wanted it to be a part of the journey.
At first, I was a little hesitant of how people will receive this project. Will anyone let a weirdo come up to them with a camera? Shortly after setting up with our "Free Portrait (woot!)" sign, people approached us. We gave them portraits. In return, they gave us stories. An artist spoke to us about his new tattoo, a black fighting rooster in honor of his grandfather back in Guadalajara. A homeless man told us that he always dreamed of being photographed like "the stars." A middle eastern immigrant looked at us with kind eyes and let out a small smile.
I hope this serves as inspiration for people to go out and photograph others. Share your pictures. Share stories.
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Free Photo Guides
By Kirk Hille. 15 Nov 2008.
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