36 Arrıve • March/April 2014 • arrivemagazine.com david johnson
“We made it about the families getting
to collaborate, and have control of their
image and how they wanted to appear
as a family,” Brasington says. “Martin
schoeller came with an entire crew. The
photographers treated it as a paying
job. They took so much time and care to
make the families feel beautiful. Partner-
ing with a portrait photographer can be
empowering. You are given control at
least for a moment over how people see
you. Rather than focus on the despair of
poverty, we celebrated the strengths and
universal connections of families.”
immerman took note of how the kids
responded to seeing their moms with
hair and makeup carefully done, happy
and smiling.
“The joy trickled down to everyone,”
says immerman, who started as a volun-
teer 10 years ago at age 16. her favorite
moment was when she presented the
images to the families. “Everyone was
filled with pride, and seeing their photos
brought back all those happy feelings gen-
erated by having someone pay attention
to them and listening to their stories.”
Brasington hopes to stage an
exhibition of the photos and bring all
50 families and the photographers and
crew back together. she’s also seeking a
publisher for a book of the portraits
accompanied by each family’s story.
“The public has a lot of misconcep-
tions about homeless families,” she says.
“We all think it can’t happen to us, but
these are hardworking families who
somehow didn’t have the safety net that
The Family Portrait Project is ongo-
ing, and the trio has been discussing how
to expand it. next up: photographing
juvenile offenders and young adults—
some of whom are young fathers—ages
16–25 in order to portray them in a posi-
tive light.
“We absorb all these assumptions
society makes about us—that these
youth are destined for incarceration or
death,” Brasington says. “We want to
respect these young men for who they
are and ignite dreams—to photograph
them in a suit on Wall street or in a dif-
ferent context in order to show them in
a different light. Your mind attaches to
an image. There is such power in por-
traiture.” art-start.org —Echo Garrett
immerman brainstormed with com-
mercial photographer and longtime
volunteer natalie Brasington about a
Family Portrait Project.
“We wanted to publicly celebrate the
triumphs and resiliency of our families,”
de Los santos says. Brasington and her
husband, the photographer david johnson, recruited several other celebrity
and portrait photographers, including Martin schoeller, andrew Eccles
and Peter Yang, to do full production
shoots—complete with hair, makeup
and lighting—with the families. she also
got Fast ashleys studios in Brooklyn
to agree to sponsor all the gear for the
shoots. Fast ashleys treated the project
like a paying client, taking the order and
then delivering and picking up the gear.
Brasington also wanted to incorporate
story into the project, so immerman
asked journalists to interview the families
and worked with Brasington to coordinate the shoots. Each photographer
focused on just a few families.
Portraits of Power
A New York City nonprofit’s art project
shows a new picture of homeless families
Art start executive director johanna de Los santos noticed something about he homeless families in the
shelters in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Man-
hattan, where the nonprofit delivers art
workshops to inspire personal develop-
ment in children and young adults.
“The more we worked with the fami-
lies, the more i was impressed by their
strength and determination to provide
their children as much normalcy and
consistency [as possible] in a challeng-
ing situation,” she says. “Parents go
through acrobatics and hardships to
take care of their children during transi-
tion and to maintain the family unit.”
That sparked a bigger idea. de Los
santos and program director hannah
