What do you do when the economic downturn downsizes your workload and your prospects? If you're creative, dedicated, and motivated, like a group of photographers in Portland, Oregon, you get together and offer services to a worthwhile non-profit organization. Here's a report by Lisa Scardina, whose husband Steve is one of the organizers of PhotoForce, which opens an exhibition of their work for the Oregon Food Bank (OFB) tomorrow night. - PR

When the economic downturn started to hit the creative community hard last year, a group of five photographers who are regular contributors to Portland Monthly magazine, met, shared ideas and decided that perhaps there could be some advantage to working together instead of against each other for photo assignments.

Photos, left to right by Steven Scardina, Daniel Root and Brian Lee. Copyright the photographers, courtesy PhotoForce.

The group, called PhotoForce, consists of Steven Scardina, Lincoln Barbour, Brian Lee, Stuart Mullenberg and Daniel Root, all looking for new ways to tell stories and connect with their community in open assignments that would spark new ideas - and make pro-bono work for non-profits a priority.

Steve has been an active volunteer for the St. Vincent DePaul food pantry, stocking the shelves with regular visits to Oregon Food Bank. He knew of the scope and impact of their work and also that Oregon has one of the highest rates of hunger in the nation. He shared this information with the group and they all agreed that it was the right kind of assignment.

"It was hard to believe that some of the top shooters in town would call us up and offer to do this," said Amber Stinson, public relations associate for OFB. "When we first talked about the assignment, I told them about all of the different facets of our work, from working cooperatively with farmers, to the food production companies that support our work, to the statewide network of food pantries to the thousands of families who need and receive this food. They got it - and got to work."

Daniel Root traveled to Canby, Hillsboro and Ontario, staying in cheap motels and meeting people along the way. He saw first-hand the families arriving at the food pantry and packing their boxes with the food they needed for the week. He stopped in at the Sisters of the Road Cafe, where meals are served for the needy every day.

Stuart Mullenberg and Brian Lee traveled together to Echo, Oregon to visit a farm that donates vegetables to the food bank. While some of their images are of the same subject, they couldn't be more different. Lee captured black and white imagery of trucks filled with fresh carrots. Mullenberg grabbed color portraits of the farm workers. And Lincoln Barbour found himself documenting the warehouses and other locations where the food is trucked and stored.

"One of the best things about this assignment is having a group of other photographers to share your work with and get some feedback. We were all able to test new techniques and get feedback from other photographers that we really respect," said Mullenberg. And, thanks to the support of ProPhoto Supply of Portlalnd, the photographers were able to try out some new lenses and other equipment along the way.

The opening reception for the exhibition is Thursday, January 21^st from 5 to 10 pm at Venue Pearl, 323 NW 13^th Avenue Portland, Oregon. Visitors are encouraged to bring canned goods which will be distributed by OFB. Click to visit the PhotoForce website.