Foodbank Charity Project
Up and down the country I have read articles on the fantastic work people have been putting in to support their neighbours, the NHS, food distribution, their local economy and much more. I felt inspired to want to do my bit, but I was unsure what to do. I decided that whatever this endeavour was going to be I wanted it to help my local community.
I stumbled over an article looking at how local foodbanks across the country where struggling. In all honestly I had no idea who our local foodbanks were or if we even had any. A little research later and I discovered a whole network of support that covered my local area, the Isle of Thanet. I chose to try and help both the Salvation Army foodbank and the Thanet Food link, both local foodbanks who were under considerable strain during these unprecedented times.
I settled on the idea of doing free socially distanced doorstep portraits, and if my clients liked the images then they could choose to make a voluntary donation to a fundraiser I had set up. The images were to be simple, no flash, no over posing, simply people on their doorstep with their families. I wanted people to have something nice they could look back on and remember the positives from this time, like the extra time at home with their family, rather than the fear, lost jobs and all the other terribly difficult aspects. At the same time we would raise a little money to help these local foodbanks that support our shared community.
I set out to raise £100 which would be shared equally between the chosen charities. At the time of writing this we are approaching £450. I have been truly humbled by peoples generosity during this time.
My Favourite Picture (so far)
I love the moment of the little girl peering over the front garden fence. I had just finished taking a few pictures of the family and had just walked out of the gate heading towards the car when I caught sight of this scene out of the corner of my eye. Luckily I still had my camera in hand and without looking raised my arm and snapped a picture as I walked. Fortunately the camera worked it's magic and I ended up with my favourite photo of any shoot.
I really like the fun and happiness in this image. At no other time in our lives would these two had been able to spend so much time together, without school and other items of "normal life" getting in the way.
This image was almost my favourite photo for this blog post. I had just photographed the family as a group when the parents asked for one of their son and his girlfriend. I love the fact that these two are not trying to be anything except themselves, no smiles just simply being themselves and looking very cool if that's still the right word in 2020.
News Article & Links
I was approached by our local Isle of Thanet News website for an interview looking at this project. That was a really nice surprise, as this is only a very small project. They kindly wrote a great article supporting the project. If you would like to see the news article or view the Go Fund Me fundraiser page then please click the links below:
A Few More Images
Below there are a selection of other images from some of the Doorstep Portrait shoots.
