News Video

This is where our inspiration comes from | Help Portrait 2014

Yesterday, 6th 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 4th 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

You Might Also Like

5 Comments

  • Reply
    Melanie
    7. December 2014 at 16:44

    Einfach nur WOW! Wahnsinn, was ihr da geleistet habt! Ich bin so sehr berührt

  • Reply
    Sarina
    9. December 2014 at 12:50

    Das hat mich echt grad zum Weinen gebracht,…. Auf der einen Seite dieses Leid und diese kleinen Menschen zu sehen, die doch sooo großes leisten, auf der anderen Seite, die Eltern, die glücklich sind und denen ein Stückchen Glück näher gebracht wurde trotz all dem Schicksal, dass sie nicht verdient haben.

    DANKE, dass ihr so etwas macht, dass ihr euch die Zeit und die Mühe macht, diesen Eltern noch mehr Kraft zu geben und diesen kleinen Engelchen Erinnerungen zu schenken! Und Danke, dass wir diese Bilder zu sehen bekommen….

    Eine gerade sehr nachdenkliche Sarina <3

  • Reply
    Juliane
    11. December 2014 at 13:56

    ich kann den Text grad gar nicht lesen… diese Bilder berühren so sehr… Wahnsinn! bin zu Tränen gerührt!

  • Reply
    Birgit
    28. September 2015 at 10:33

    Bin zu Tränen gerührt… diese kleinen Menschlein, die schon so früh in ihrem Leben so tapfer sein müssen, zwischen all den Geräten und Schläuchen zu sehen… und die Eltern, die so unheimlich stark sind…

    Ihr macht einen tollen Job! Danke dafür.

  • Reply
    PERSONAL | LITTLE UPDATE - Marina Scholze Photography
    16. December 2015 at 0:23

    […] die letzten 2 Wochen schon wieder so schnell vergangen, beginned mit einem sehr eindrucksvollen Help Portrait Day in der Herzklinik in München, einer superlustigen Candi-Live-Weihnachtsfeier, jeder menge Shoots […]

Leave a Reply