MILFORD, PA — On November 20, members of the Pike County Photography Club gathered at Belle Reve Senior Living to make portraits of residents who call the facility home. The photo shoot was also held in 2018 and 2019 but the COVID pandemic interrupted the tradition until this year.

The club picked up on the Help-Portrait project founded by Jeremy Cowart in 2008. This was before the internet spread social media across the world, so Cowart used a blogging network to spread his very simple idea: Find people in need. Take their photos. Print their photos. And give them away.

The whole concept became a global movement spanning 80-plus countries and millions of portraits. Help-Portrait continues to this day around the world. 

Help-Portrait is about giving the pictures, not taking them. These family portraits aren’t for a portfolio, website or for sale. Help-Portrait is a community project to help people who otherwise couldn’t afford family portraits, a chance to capture a moment, a memory—and a whole lot more. About a dozen residents and some Belle Reve staff sat for their portraits in front of their choice of two backdrops with four photographers.

Thanks to club president Bonnie McCaffery, who made arrangements with ACI Color Lab to provide 8-by-10 inch color prints at no cost in support of the Help-Portrait project, participants received their portrait prints before Christmas. The club thanked Nicole Gallagher, resident life director at Belle Reve Senior Living, for making the necessary arrangements and handling the sign-ups of the participants.

The Pike County Photography Group has a Facebook page and meets on the fourth Wednesday of each month at 2 p.m. in the activity room at Belle Reve Senior Living in Milford. Anyone interested in photography at any level is welcome to join in. We hold photography practice sessions, have speakers and host workshops on various subjects. We also offer encouragement and help, as well as critique if requested. 

For more information, email Jeffrey Sidle at jscuba@ptd.net.