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| © Lynn Blodgett/courtesy Palace Press |
| "Justin, Delbert, Tiffany, Dennis." Click photo for more images. |
Palace Press; 136 pages; 140 black-and-white photographs; $55
The president and CEO of Affiliated Computer Services Inc., a Dallas-based Fortune 500 company, Lynn Blodgett would seem to have little in common with the homeless people he photographed for this collection. But he found a strong kinship with them that, he says, compelled him to make these portraits. The project began when Blodgett, an avid amateur photographer, took a 2002 Santa Fe Photographic Workshops class with celebrity photographer Andrew Eccles. Assigned to take a portrait, Blodgett went to a local trailer park, where he photographed an indigent man and his son. Moved by the experience -- and with encouragement from Eccles -- Blodgett sought out and photographed subjects at homeless shelters in a dozen cities, often after a day of corporate meetings. Shot on white seamless in the style of Richard Avedon's In the American West series, Blodgett's pictures show world-weary yet open, welcoming faces that reflect dignity, perseverance, hope, even humor; many of the portraits are accompanied by written anecdotes. "I hope we can see beyond the myths that all homeless people are lazy, addicted, or crazy," Blodgett says. "These are real people. They have stories to tell. If we look into their eyes, we can discover talented musicians, bricklayers, businesswomen, and poets. And we can learn from them." Proceeds from sales of the book go to a charity called the Finding Grace Homeless Initiative (visit findinggracehomeless.org).
-Jack Crager
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