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Inspired by the vision of photographer Jeremy Cowart, 30 local photographers signed on.
One hundred and thirty-seven families had their photographs taken for free Dec. 12 and were given their portraits last month.
Omahan Larry Graves sipped chicken noodle soup at First Baptist Church.
Wearing a torn blue T-shirt and paint-speckled boots, he was taking a break from painting one of the church's upstairs rooms to attend a community meal with his 7-year-old grandson, Dax.
Graves, 55, adores the little guy. They while the weekend hours away with special projects. You'd think they'd have scrapbooks full of adventures.
But they don't. No time and no money.
“I've never had a professional photo taken,” Graves said.
Help-Portrait was designed for people like Graves.
More than 6,000 photographers worldwide took portraits of homeless people, low-income families, the elderly, single mothers and victims of domestic violence and gave them the prints for free. Locally, 30 photographers worked with 137 Omaha families. The recipients recently received their prints.
One delivery was at First Baptist Church during its Saturday interfaith community meal, organized by Incommon Community Development.
The meal feeds 300 people on average every Saturday in warmer months. During the fall and winter, those numbers drop off to about 100. Many of the meal participants attended the Help-Portrait photo day.
In the basement of the downtown church, dozens of portraits were stacked on a wooden table.
One was a war veteran in a camouflage jacket. One showed a single mom with her two kids. Another was a photo of an elderly couple who finally had their first picture taken together.
A few feet from the table, Cait Caughey helped a silver-haired woman find her photos.
“Don't they look great,” Caughey told the elderly woman. “Here, these are yours, too.”
“So I can have all of them,” the woman asked. “Really?”
The photos were a nice addition to the free community meal, said Caughey, who works with Incommon Community Development.
“They give people a sense of dignity,” she added. “Everyone was really stoked to get them.”
Some people held them close. Some neatly tucked them into shopping bags while others showed them off.
At one table, Omahan Kylie Laushman put a few extra donated frames into a wire cart.
“I didn't have makeup on that day,” she bragged about her portrait. “And I still looked good.”
Justin Bey, her 22-year-old boyfriend, chuckled. The couple had their photos taken together.
“A nice keepsake for my (18-month-old) daughter,” Laushman said. They gave some of the photos to Bey's mom.
For Graves, posing with Dax was a treat. Their framed photos caught Dax's cheeky expression and an overjoyed grandfather.
“We've never had photos taken together,” a teary-eyed Graves repeated. Now he had four prints.
He gave one to Dax's father, Brian. He placed one in his office and hung another in the family room.
The last one would go into a scrapbook.
Contact the writer:
444-1075, j.loza@owh.com
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