This is where our inspiration comes from | Help Portrait 2014

Yesterday, 6^th December 2014, we were lucky to do the international Help Portrait day again. If you are not familiar with this and want to know more, check out the official project website Help Portrait.

We get a lot of questions about where our inspiration comes from and our answer is the same since a couple of years. For us, inspiration is not coming from work or creativity of someone, it’s coming from inside. From the heart of a person or from generous things this person does.

One of our top inspiration sources is Jeremy Cowart (second inspiration is further down). A photographer from the USA who we had the privilege to meet several times and even have dinner back in 2012 at WPPI. He is the founder of Help Portrait which we have participated yesterday for the 4^th time since 2010. HERE and HERE are stories from earlier years.

The Mission of Help Portrait is easy: “Founded by Celebrity Photographer Jeremy Cowart, Help-Portrait is a community of photographers coming together across the world to use their photography skills to give back to their local community.”

Again we have been teaming up with the staff and volunteers from the “Ronald McDonald Haus München am Deutschen Herzzentrum” to photograph the families and friends who have a home there over the time of the treatment in the cardiology clinic. This time can be as long as 11 weeks and more!

These families (mostly) have young kids who suffer from heart disease and there they find a home during the stay in the hospital. Either right after birth or for their periodic checkups’ as well as for surgeries, this place saves the parents and families from additional hotel costs. The house gives them a place to sleep, cook and get as comfortable as someone could get in such a life changing situation.

Me (Ingo) being a father since 7 weeks, it truly was difficult to not tear up several times while photographing families in the intensive care unit. Some of these babies were almost same age as our Malia. Carmen and Malia where there for the entire day too and she wasn’t even able to leave our little girl alone and shoot. It just get’s to close for a fresh mother.

It’s very touching but at the same it’s one of the best inspirations for us. Those parents are super strong, powerful and whatever life through at them they take it and work hard to manage it.

You see hope, smiles and laughs next to the one thing, which might be the biggest challenge they had to conquer till date.  Or that mother with cancer and the boy with heart disease. It’s those people who inspire us the most and make us focused to important things in life.

We, as photographers, cannot physically help at all but delivering the parents a portrait of their family, friends, the babies or kids during this help portrait day and it really made them happy and maybe forget their situation for a couple of minutes.

Here is a little BTS Video of yesterday, just roughly edited this morning, with one hand while holding my daughter Malia in the left arm. I teared up like 10 times or more during the editing…

Check out the some portraits and BTS further down too.

 

These parents below had their girl Maria baptised just 1 hour before.

This lady is proudly showing a portrait with Sylvester Stallone and her. She is taking it with her in her wallet since she was 35 years old.

A HUGE THANK YOU TO THE ENTIRE TEAM!! YOU GUYS ROCK! Susanne Heiker, Alexandra Richter-Woite, Marina Scholze, Jules Heim, Franzsika Schroeder, Jasmin Ziegler, Stephanie Hauslohner