Portrait Equality – and the winner of my book comp. announced

Cam Cope in Mauritania for Portrait Equality

Have you ever been travelling in a developing country, taking photos of beautiful kids and their families, and so wished you could somehow extract a shot from your camera and give it to them?

It’s happened to me a lot on the last project and even if I promised to send them a print, you had to wonder if it ever got there, and that’s if you actually remembered to do it, or didn’t lose their address.

Well, a little while ago I was contacted by someone who’s worked out a clever solution to this frustrating and often saddening problem. Through her project called Portrait Equality, Tasmin Brown provides nifty instant cameras and film to photographers travelling to developing nations and remote communities, so they can provide portraits to local people along their journey.

Tasmin Brown in Vanuatu for Portrait Equality

You don’t have to be any great photographer to get your hands on one of these free instant cameras – you just need to be visiting places where the residents would benefit from the program and keen to do it.

I think it’s a fantastic idea and can’t wait to do it myself. But seeing as I’m not about to leap off anywhere soon, I’m thrilled to at least be able to help by opening Portrait Equality’s second annual gallery show and auction of family portraits taken in developing nations or remote communities.

All the details are on their website but essentially, here’s the deal:

Wednesday April 2 – Mary Place Gallery in Paddington – 6-9pm – free tickets (and drinkies)

I’ll be opening the exhibition (of some really beautiful images taken at the same time as the instant camera snaps) and then enjoying some of their wine, along with you hopefully! You can also find out more about participating in the project on the night.

WINNER OF MY LITTLE IMPROMPTU WIN-A-BOOK COMPETITION

Speaking of participating, thanks to everyone who headed into my exhibition at Kinokuniya Books over the last fortnight and stuck a sticker on the world map locating their favourite place in the world. Some great entries but I couldn’t go past this one:

“Sydney, because I feel at home here and it always feels like the world is visiting”, Yani

Congrats Yani! (I feel like I’m on a game show) Please email me so I can send you out a copy of 52 Suburbs Around the World: 52suburbs@gmail.com

Okay, that’s about as much news as I can handle for one day. But I really do hope you can make it on Wednesday April 2 – great cause and free alcohol – a winning combination for sure.