Recently I asked myself: “What is something I have been seeking for a long time, and I don’t feel like I have found it yet?”

Community. A sense of purpose. Belonging.

Relocating from a large Southern California city to a small New England town has left me feeling adrift for nearly a decade. I want to know my children’s home town better and I want to meet as many people here as I can. It is so important to build community, and I believe so passionately that art can do that. So, I would like to try a little project.

The Community Portrait Project

What is the Community Portrait Project?

A community art project where I take portraits of as many people in my community as possible. 

Goals:

• Create a visual archive of a specific time and place in our local history

• To create a body of work that is both documentary and visually appealing - equal parts artistry and archive.

• To meet and learn about my community

• To practice my portraiture work.

Will it cost money?

• No. It is free to participate and have a portrait taken.

• Digital photos and prints will be made available to purchase when they are finished at a reasonable rate.

Concepts and Ideas I am exploring:

• Community artmaking, “community cameras” will be brought to every pop-up for people to contribute their own images.

• How to be creative photographing many people in the same environment, how to keep things fresh and interesting.

• Being resourceful and tightening up my workflow.

What is the ideal outcome?

• Photos of as many Gorham residents as possible that create a “visual archive” of our community.

• This collection will be used on my website, possibly on social media, and hopefully in some form of print depending on the success of the pop-ups and the rate of participation.

• There is not a set goal or finish line. I would just like to see where this project goes.

• Long term, I would like to explore doing pop-ups in different communities.

What happens during a pop-up:

• I will be making events known through my business social media channels about the date and time of the popup.

• Anyone who lives here or in the general region can show up and have a portrait taken to be part of the project

• Anyone under 18 must have parental consent

• All participants will be required to sign a release that grants me permission to take their photo and to use it for my own artistic purposes within the scope of the community portrait project.

• Pop Ups will last around 2 hours, plenty of time to photograph lots of people!

• People do not need to sign up in advance, just show up

• I will be collecting contact information so that if I have questions or need further releases etc I can contact people, no information will be sold to any third parties.

• Participants are welcome to purchase prints and digital files and those may be used for personal purposes. They may not be sold, licensed, or used outside of the scope of the project.

So, if you’ve read this far, perhaps you are a little intrigued?

Here are the dates:

Sunday July 21st, Robie Park, Gorham, ME 5-7pm

Monday August 12th, Robie Lawn (next to Robie Gym) 42 South St, Gorham, ME 5-7pm

Sunday August 25th, the gazebo next to Baxter Memorial Library, 71 South St, Gorham, ME 4-6pm

Saturday September 7th, At Art on South 42 South St, Gorham ME 10am -2pm

Questions? Email me HERE