News:Waking up at 6:50am isn't something that I do on a typical Saturday, but December 5th wasn't my typical Saturday. I'm about an hour northwest of Seoul, in Ilsan "The New City," so meeting the guys at 9:00am took me a little extra time to get up and ready. By the time I was on the subway at 7:45am, I was cleaned, clothed, and carrying my gear -- cup of coffee included! The Hwasung Baby Home orphanage in the Wangshimni neighborhood of Seoul was my final destination and where the Seoul Photo Club's Help-Portrait project took place.
A shift in thinking... Help-Portrait is a movement of photographers who are using their time, equipment and expertise to give back to those who are less fortunate this holiday season. Founded by celebrity photographer Jeremy Cowart, Help-Portrait is a community of photographers, coming together across the world, to use their photography skills to give back to the community.
On or around December 12th, 2009, photographers around the world grabbed their cameras, found people in need, and took their picture. When the prints were ready, the photographs got delivered.
Awesome video edited together by Dylan Goldby with Shawn and Dylan's footage.
It was really nice spending time with the kids, and the camaraderie between us photographers made a long day a pleasure to work through. The four of us -- Aaron Raisey (Seoul Photo Club President), Dylan Goldby (Help-Portrait organizer), Shawn Parker, and myself -- made for a great team. Figuring out how to shoot kids who didn't want to sit still was a tough enough challenge. Add a language barrier on top of that and things could have turned into chaos pretty quickly! Luckily, Dylan's fiancee, Jeehe, was awesome at wrangling the kids and translating back and forth. As Shawn puts it, "We have experience in fashion, studio, print and editorial work. But none of that prepares you for the madness of shooting children. Lots of them, stuffed full of sugar."
From about 10:00am 'till 12:00 noon, we shot and shot... and shot some more! Kids climbed all over us the whole way through. It was insane, but awesome! The orphanage provided a delicious lunch including chicken and rice. Around 1:00pm when the older kids got home from school, we got right back at it! I think we finally packed up around 3:30pm or so and called it a day... a very long day!
At the very least, The Help-Portrait project brought four guys together, one from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the United States of America, for one day in order to give back to children in Korea -- that's a mighty wide reach for a mighty good cause! The laughs and good times with the kids is something we'll all remember forever.
For volunteer opportunities with Hwasung Baby Home contact Jeong Jin-Hee at 010-7679-3596 or visit them online at www.hwasung.org
For more on Help-Portrait www.help-portrait.com
For more on the Seoul Photo Club www.seoulphotoclub.wordpress.com or www.flickr.com/groups/seoulphotoclub
Clicking any of the photos will take you to an exhibit gallery where you can view them whole set.
Thanks for reading and checking these out!
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