Welcoming Colorado project
See that bus cruisin’ around downtown Denver? The photo of the bus was taken by my good friend, Scott Kwasny. The photo on the side of the bus was taken by me! : )
If you go downtown any time soon you can those ads on a bunch of buses.
Here’s a close up. The photo is part of the Welcoming Colorado campaign (organized by the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition). This project gave me the opportunity to photograph immigrant workers in Colorado. The instructions for photographing my subjects were fairly simple: rule of thirds and convey dignity.
On our way to Denver International Airport (DIA) for the official shoot. Pretty handsome subject, huh?
…again, on our way to the airport. i’ve yet to meet a single person who likes that very evil blue horse with the red eyes in front of DIA.
So here’s how it went…our immigrant worker/cab driver/model took us right to the DIA “departures” section. The traffic cop agreed to let us do a five minute photo session in front of the airport. This beautiful photo was taken under such pressure.
No time for light meters, clothing changes, traffic consideration, or careful scrutiny of the images on the LCD screen of my camera. We needed amazing pics and had five (or less) minutes to take care of it. Of the few posing directions I gave to our subject that day was: “Okay, now look like you’re proud of the work you do.” His response: “That will be easy. I’m very proud.” …and then we took this pic. : )
This project will undoubtedly open many doors for more non-profit and social justice-related projects. Special thanks to the amazing Chandra Russo of CIRC for helping to put all of this together.
