I’ve been doing quite a bit of new work with the Greater Chicago Food Depository since I shot a photo essay covering their efforts last fall in Time Out Chicago. They really liked the images that I shot for that project and they’ve asked me to be part of an ongoing series that they’re calling “The New Normal” -its purpose is to document the unabated demand for food aid in the Chicagoland area since the recession began. We’ve been going to various pantries around the Chicago area taking pictures of the pantries, the people who offer help and the people who seek it. I’ll be posting images and galleries from those shoots in coming weeks.
Operation Blessing
Below is an image that I shot for the cover of their 2010-2015 strategic plan. It’s a picture of a large, self-sustaining organic garden that has been grown by the inmates of the Chicago Sheriff’s boot camp program. It places highly at-risk youth who have been convicted of nonviolent crimes in an environment that aims to turn them around. Part of their education involves a healthy diet and learning how to grow healthy food and provide for themselves and others. The excess food that they produce goes to help out the needy at local pantries.
Tags: charity, Chicago, documentary, food depository
