SubscribeGiving Back to your Subjects
As traveling photographers, we are often in the unfortunate position of taking from subjects less fortunate than ourselves without giving anything back. On an ideological level, I like to believe that a great image comes from a collaboration between photographer and subject. However, we capture images, show them off to friends and relatives, promote ourselves professionally, and maybe even sell prints. For the barefoot pilgrim, the hungry child, and the lonely grandmother with the tattered shawl though, life continues unchanged.
Fortunately, Collective Lens allows us to leverage the emotional impact of our photos to inspire others to get involved with organizations that assist people in situations similar to those of our subjects. It’s rare, though, that a photographer is able to use an image to directly impact the individual life of the person it depicts.
That’s why I was so inspired when I heard what photographer Thomas Holton did to help when the subjects of his long term documentary photography piece “The Lams of Ludlow Street” narrowly escaped disaster.
Below is an email he wrote originally published on Andrew Hetherington’s “What’s the Jackaonry” photography blog:
As you may or may not know, I photographed a Chinese family from 2002-2005 for a project called ‘The Lams of Ludlow Street’. Beyond the remarkable publicity the work has gotten the past year or so, the Lams mean so much more tome than any professional accomplishments. I learned a lot about myself both personally and creatively and see the Lams as family. On Tuesday, June 14th, there was an electrical fire in the walls and the stairwell and the roof of their building on Ludlow Street caught on fire. The family made it out of the building via the fire escape and are now safe and sound, if not a little shaken up. The fire was caught early but their apartment, the 5th floor and the roof took a lot of structural,water and smoke damage. The space is not completely destroyed but the building is currently closed for inspection and the Lams are in a Red Cross secured apartment on West 129th street. The next step is between the landlord and the NYC Building Inspectors as they assess the building to see if its needs to be completely rebuilt or if only the5th floor apartments and roof should be repaired. This is not a new building and this will probably takes years judging by how long these things seem to take. In the meantime, The Lams have this Red Cross space for only six months before they need to find a new home for themselves.
Regardless of what happens with the Ludlow Street building, the likelihood that they will ever live there again is pretty small since they will need a new home soon and perhaps permanently. I am contacting you today to let you know that I will be selling a limited ‘benefit’ edition print of the project with all the proceeds going to the Lams as they rebuild their lives. The print will be a color 11×14 C-Print for $175 for one with discount rates increasing as the number of prints bought increases. Please contact me directly at thomas@thomasholton.com or call to buy some prints the help the Lams.
Think about picking up a print from Thomas to help out the Lams if you can spare the cash. I know it’s inspired me to be more aware of ways I can use my images to give back to the people they depict. I hope it does the same for you.
November 20th, 2008 at 7:45 am
[...] the perception? As Collective Lens contributor Andris Bjornson points out in his article on ‘Giving Back To Your Subjects‘, photography often involves taking a less-fortunate person’s picture and not giving [...]