These historic times should be remembered.
In the era of COVID-19, Portraits From Home is an effort to capture the difficult, stressful, and at times beautiful moment we’re living in – in the lasting medium of photographic film. I'm creating a collection of portraits featuring the residents of Whatcom County, paired with their personal thoughts about the unprecedented turn our lives have taken this year. Taken together, the portraits will form a photographic time capsule of the coronavirus era.
See some of the portraits here!
How Does It Work?
If you’re a resident of Whatcom County, I’d love to come by and take your picture! I’m doing this completely free of charge – my goal is to create a collection of images for the long term. Along with sharing them online, I hope to create a book, exhibition, or at minimum, archive them in an historical institution for long-term preservation. By filling out this web form, you can share your contact information. I’ll get in touch and try and schedule a mutually convenient time for me to stop by, keeping a safe distance throughout of 12 feet or more, and take your (or your family’s) picture.
I'll be using medium and large-format film cameras to make these images, and then developing the film myself at home. It's a tedious process, but there's something magical about about the results that makes it worthwhile.
What’s important to you?
Feel free to pose with any clothing, objects, people or animals that are meaningful to you in this time. The mood might be serious, ridiculous, or a combination of both (which is what I'm feeling these days!) The purpose of the project is simply to document what it felt to be here, stuck at home, in 2020.
Why Film?
We’re awash in a sea of imagery from smartphones and digital cameras, but it only takes a failed hard drive, an accidentally deleted folder, or simply a forgotten old laptop to lose these images forever. The archival qualities of black-and-white film are what allow us to look back 100 years or more into our history. Shooting on film now allows us to capture this unique moment in history and preserve it for generations.
Just as we look at images from the Great Depression and feel a connection to those people, please join me to make some images right now that can make a connection to our descendants, saying “This was the time we lived through.”
