project homelss connect

During the three years that I was unemployed I had the opportunity to join with the fine folks at Hidden Voices to work on a pretty cool portrait project. Once a year, at Project Homeless Connect in Orange County, Hidden Voices had a booth set up and we would provide photo portraits of the homeless and less fortunate members of our community.

This was a great project that I really enjoyed doing each year. I found it very rewarding to be able to put a smile on the faces of some whom didn’t seem to have much to smile about. I remember distinctly one gentleman telling me that he had not seen his mother in ten years and would love to send her a picture of himself. Some of the pictures that I made were of moms and their young children, many of which who had not had any professional pictures taken since the tots were born.

Since I went back to work again fulltime a couple of years ago, I haven’t been able to work with Hidden Voices during the Project Homeless Connect event each October. So, this year, I sent a note to my buddy Jock Lauterer, the master of community journalism at UNC-CH. I wanted to continue this fine tradition of providing this service during this year’s event in Durham. So, I am partnering with the Durham Voice and will be at this year’s event on Friday, Oct. 10.

The Durham Voice is a community based newspaper and online project that involves journalism students from both N.C. Central University and UNC-Chapel Hill. The Voice mainly covers Northeast Central Durham, but also covers social issues that effect us all. I will be working with the students, who will do the photography and collect short narratives from the people photographed with the results running as a photo essay in the Voice. I am really excited to see us not only provide a service during the event, but also be able to take it to the next level. Can’t wait!