The Project: To create portraits of business owners whose determination to serve has driven them to adapt their businesses throughout the quickly changing climate.
Portraits are taken in front of, inside, or through the front window of their business, while practicing current CDC guidelines. The collection gives businesses an opportunity to connect with their communities and bring people "together" despite being isolated.
How it Started
As a photographer of families, business portraits and youth sports, the recent closing of schools and the virtual shut down of our towns and cities has pretty much brought my work to a halt. Anyone that knows me well can imagine how stir crazy I have been going for the past couple of weeks! Meanwhile, like many people in town, I have been looking for a way to help support our local businesses. A photographer friend of mine, based in the Boston area, is launching a front porch project for families, and as soon as she shared her idea with me, I knew that I could adapt it for businesses! My goal is to donate my time and talent to photograph local business owners, showing how they are adapting their services in order to keep their doors open as long as possible to serve the community. (And maybe even some that have made the decision to temporarily close their doors for the safety of their clients and themselves.) I reached out to a few of my friends in Manchester and got the ball rolling. You will see them featured here first. This is just the beginning; I hope to feature many more businesses while we all wait for normal life to resume.
Would You Like to Participate?
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I am looking for local business owners (Manchester, MI and surrounding communities) to participate. This is entirely voluntary; there is no charge.
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I will capture the portraits while we are both being fully compliant with current CDC guidelines. Sessions will take 5 – 10 minutes.
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You are welcome to download the images with my compliments and all I ask is that you sign a model release.
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I will be featuring the images as a collection on my website and social media sites, and posting it to local Facebook groups to help promote our small businesses, I may create some type of gallery or printed piece once we come on the other side of this pandemic. (Seems like a great reason to celebrate)