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| © Trenton Times / Photo by Frank Jacobs III |
| The photo staff of New Jersey's Trenton Times captured the Special Olympics spirit. |
Ordinarily, our job is to find and publish the best images made by the world's top photographers. For the American Photo Mission Series, however, we asked six photographers to go out and create new bodies of work, all focusing on the subject of volunteerism. Our goal, simply, was to document the spirit that drives people to work and sacrifice in order to improve the lot of others. But the photographers who undertook the task -- National Geographic's Steve McCurry, fine-art photographer Phil Borges, veteran commercial photographers Vincent Versace and Matthew Jordan Smith, Frank Jacobs III and the photo staff of the New Jersey Trenton Times, and nature photographer Art Wolfe -- ended up doing much more. They uncovered and illuminated the workings of charities that feed and house the poor, that find missing children, that protect our natural resources, that provide an enriching setting of competition and companionship for the physically and mentally challenged, and that bring education to a hard-put ethnic group in Afghanistan. In doing so, they displayed the instinct for compassion that has always driven photography.
In response, we have produced a series of books featuring the work of three of these photographers, as well as a unique Website that features all the work and provides information on the organizations that we spotlight. We're certain you will be inspired by the results.
This effort would not have been possible without the help of Microsoft, which funded the entire project and provided technical assistance throughout. It is our hope that this is just the beginning of a continuing interest in the people and organizations that are doing so much for us all.
-- David Schonauer
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