12/24/2009
Chapel portrait project a snapshot in midst of constant change
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| Chapel portrait project a snapshot in midst of constant change |
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Clarice Keating
Two years ago, after Laverne Tate finished her portrait photo shoot at the St. Vincent de Paul Parish Downtown Chapel, she returned to a pile of blankets under the Burnside Bridge.
This year, she has a small, warm studio apartment at the Macdonald Center.
Though it wasn’t an intended part of the original vision of the photography project, the images taken of members of the Old Town community each year track changes in the lives of those who use the services of the parish.
“It gives us a chance to see not only who’s not here anymore, but also it allows us to see the transitions people have made,” said the church’s pastoral associate, Andrew Noethe.
As church employees and volunteers watched the slideshow of past images from the Portrait Project, they took a break from the whirlwind pace of meeting immediate needs to reflect on those with whom they’ve worked in the past.
With most days spent being “present to those who are here today,” Noethe said, they don’t often have a chance to sit back and remember friends who have moved away or no longer need the services of the parish, which has a central mission to serve the poor or homeless who congregate in the neighborhood.
“There is high turnover,” Noethe said. “The transition is overwhelming, to think every day we get six to 10 new people we’ve never seen before.”
Tate came to seek support at the parish when she wound up on the streets after having to leave a house she shared with her siblings because they were taking drugs.
“That’s all over with now,” she said.
A couple years ago, Tate’s caseworker helped her qualify for a space at the Macdonald Center, which provides living space for low-income people who are ill or mentally or physically disabled.
There she can prepare her own food, and is learning math and to read and write.
While people warm up in the hospitality center of the church with a cup of coffee and a baked treat, parish volunteers rally individuals to come have their image artfully captured by professional photographer Jason Kaplan.
The DVD slideshow from the 2007 and 2008 shoot played on a television at the front of the room. Every year, Kaplan and other volunteer photographers take at least 100 portraits.
As the faces in the video smiled out onto the crowd, Fred Sorrells waved back at one image.
“Hello! I know her,” he said, and pointed to a few more faces he recognized.
Sorrells has participated in the project for several years. This year for his close-up, he donned a suit, accessorized with a pocket watch and fingerless gloves.
Sorrells grew up among wealthy families in Texas. He moved to Portland in 1976, after visiting a friend and falling in love with the city.
Today he battles alcoholism and sometimes has a place to live and sometimes doesn’t.
“Many see the poor as a blight rather than a condition,” he said. “Those people walk by homeless men sleeping in the streets, counting their $20 bills, without giving a second look.”
When times get tough, Sorrell said he always looks to the Church for support.
“The Holy Church has been my mother,” he said. “I can lay my head in her lap.”
The aim of the Portrait Project is to offer those who have their picture taken a new lens in which to view themselves. They also leave with a gift for family and friends.
Parish volunteers hope these visual gifts can even serve as bridges to relationships that have been broken in the past.
Noethe told a story from last year’s shoot.
“A Downtown Chapel volunteer helped a young man write a letter to his family, whom he hadn’t contacted in years,” he said. “The letter ended by saying, ‘Sorry for all of the wreckage I left behind. I will be home soon.’”
Kaplan, who makes a living as a wedding photographer and photojournalist, recognized faces from past years as he took the photos. He thinks the most pragmatic way a portrait can make a difference is as a vehicle to help reconnect the subject with family or friends who may be worried.
“If you can send a photo of yourself to someone who cares about you, that may be a catalyst to opening a conversation or to getting other people involved in your life again,” he said.
To view a slide show of last year’s Portrait Project, log on to: www.downtownchapel.org or tinyurl.com/yazmwon.
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