First off let me start by saying how much I respect Thomas Hawk’s photography skills. He is one of the reasons I get motivated when I post photos because once in a while I post something that catches his eye and he marks it a fav on Zooomr or Flickr. On those days I am so excited because he is an everyman photography demi-god for many people. Or, maybe I’m just a huge fanboy.

The other day I saw on my feed reader a post titled: Introducing Christopher and the Start of My $2 Portraits Project. I clicked on it and was greeted with this beautiful and haunting portrait.

Photo by Thomas Hawk

Thomas’ project and something that he says he will do for the rest of his life is:

From this week going forward until the day that I die I am going to offer $2 to anyone who asks me for money in exchange for their portrait. While I’m taking their portrait I’m going to ask their name and try to learn a little bit about them. I plan on doing this for the rest of my life — assuming that I can afford to.

So far there has been a ton of reaction to this project. Thomas always gets a ton of reaction to his work as be is very vocal and can be controversial. Heck he photographs every person who has kicked him out of places that he had every right to be in. But I digress…

I was wondering what you (my readers) thought of his project.

Is Thomas showing empathy in asking for a portrait in response to being asked for money?
He is also taking the time to learn a bit about each person that he makes a portrait of. How many times have I quickly walked down the street avoiding all eye contact with the homeless in fear that they would ask for money and I would have to interact because I was uncomfortable. In this way, in that Thomas makes an acknowledgment of each person as a person I find it commendable. In stopping to talk to each person and give them money and learn about them I find it amazing.

Is Thomas exploiting each person as he photographs them and then posts the photo on Flickr, Zooomr and blogs about each photo?
Yes the photos go up on his blog, Flickr and Zooomr. However, I think it is a good thing, because he puts the face of a person right there for you to see. Do you turn away out of embarrassment at how you have personally treated the homeless? Does the photo make you want to do the same thing as Thomas? Does it make you want to do something, anything to help?

No, I don’t think he is being exploitive. Thomas is well known around the internet, he is an internet rockstar and has internet fame. Thomas has this fame because of his amazing photos and how he interacts with people. People like him or loath him, but they are aware of the things he says, blogs about and photographs. So because he has some internet fame he has people coming out of the woodwork either praising or decrying his project. But he’s got people talking.

I don’t think that he is being exploitive, in his heart. I read this other post from earlier in the year and I think that the interaction Thomas had on that bridge is what is partly motivating this personal project.

Either way he is doing something, something to bring this issue of homelessness into our minds, to challenge our thoughts and how we treat others. If this makes you stop and think then he has done a service to you. Whether you love him or hate him for what he does, he does make you think.

So, What do you think?

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Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

Empathy or Exploitation…

The subject for today’s photo for the December Challenge is of Rachel. Rachel is a fellow Marketing Support Rep and friend. She always has a great smile and is very personable. I simply asked if I could take her pfor the December Challenge and she was happy to help even though she had only a few minutes to spare between demos. I wanted to compliment the red of Rachel’s skirt with the red in the poinsettias in the background. I also wanted to capture her ever present smile. We made the portrait in the atrium in one of our office buildings.

The December Challenge has been of particular challenge to me as portraits are very hard for me simply because I am very shy about taking someone’s photo. I am a person who avoids confrontation and probably wouldn’t have the guts of a guy like Thomas Hawk to firmly object to anyone who challenged my right to take a photo on a public street.

I was really floored today with the portrait that Jeremy took of Liz and Chico. Such a beautiful and loving photo. Liz and Chico are a homeless couple in San Francisco. Jeremy Brooks captures the beauty in the faces of two people who could easily have remained faceless to society. These are the types of photos that I have been seeing from other photographers in the December Challenge. They are from people who are taking chances to find beauty. Take a look at the December Challenge groups on Flickr and on Zooomr to find inspiration, there is plenty to be found.

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

Photo-A-Day #977 12/11/07

Today I got to work early so I could take some photos of the swans that we have in a small pond on the company property. I think in my 6 years with the company they have had quite a few swans come and go. It is always nice to see them as I drive in to park the car. I loved how the light played on the water and there was some steam rising off the water at 6:45am. Unfortunately I could not get that close to them even with the telephoto lens. But I walked around and tried as best I could to get some good shots.

Tomorrow we are having a yard sale at the house. I got home and moved out a bunch of stuff into the garage. MY sister and I poured though boxes and labeled a bunch of things. As we were going through the boxes we came across some old cameras including the one that we both learned our skills on. It was my father’s Pentax K1000 camera. I turned on the flash and it fired up. The front is a bit f=dinged and is missing the right hand cover. But we will put it on the entertainment center after we clean it up, then we will display it so that the dinged side cannot be seen. We also discovered an old canon camera and I took that as well because of the display that we are building with the old cameras. We even discovered an old Popular Photography magazine from 1983. It is funny to look back through those magazines, it was full of cigarette ads as well as some subscription tabs with nudes on them. Very interesting. I took a shot of the camera find.

On an unrelated note I am getting friend requests 4 times a day. And that is really weird. I have been on the platform for a very long time and I don’t want to leave but it is starting to become full of kids (15 & 16) who are there to accumulate tons of friends. I’m looking to meet other photographers who have actual photos and aren’t there to make virtual friends and add them to their virtual friend roundup.

And also of some good news Robert Scoble and his wife Maryam welcomed Milan William Scoble into the world. Thomas Hawk went to visit the family and took some awesome photos and wrote up a post about the visit. Such great photos. Thomas we are having our first baby soon, wanna come to MA and photo document our first 24 hours? Just kidding, I’ll be photographer that day. Here is my favorite photo of the bunch. and Thomas has a ton of great ones on his Zooomr account.

I buy a ton of stuff from Amazon.com. If you do please buy through our links and help support BenSpark.com. Thank you.

Copyright (c) 2010 Blog Consultant, Photo-A-Day Photographer & Daddy Blogger - BenSpark.com - Everyday Pictures... Every... Day

Photo-A-Day #889 09/14/07