LOCAL PHOTOGRAPHER TAKES LOCKDOWN PORTRAITS TO RAISE FUNDS FOR FOOD BANKS
A young photographer is taking free lockdown family portraits to raise funds for charity.
She has decided to contribute to her community by capturing beautiful moments of families and pets with the intention to get free will donations for food banks in Manchester.
Natalie Lewis, 29, Salford museum and archive employee, said: “A couple of weeks ago, I started seeing other photographers doing doorstep photos of people in lockdown, and so I thought that’s quite a good idea.
“Obviously, people stay at home bored not really doing anything. so, I thought to myself and decided to do a little doorstep photo and then thought, what about pets also in lockdown? and it would be quite nice to get some animal portraits as well”.
Natalie who was motivated by other photographers across the country doing the same project, offers doorstep portraits and outdoor photoshoot for families, pets, rainbow windows and anything the family wishes to capture.
She also enjoys donating to the local food banks in her community. The coronavirus pandemic has also caused large shortage of food in food banks across the UK.
She added: “I just think food banks are really important since so many people are under the poverty line and it has really helped our local communities, so I think it’s an important thing to do and I just really like what they stand for and what they do and I think they do a great job”.
Natalie defying the bad weather and setting out with just her camera, said she is doing the project because she loves photograpy, she wants to make people have nice memories and it would be nice to raise money while doing it.
She added: “They have also been cooperating with the social distancing rule. It’s been nice to meet people who have nice families, and some people have got really nice pets. They feel so good and ask if they can share on social media, it’s been nice to get all those feedbacks”.
Her project has been well received by people who are also very willing to donate towards helping the food banks.
Julie Ratcliffe, HR & recruitment officer, mother of three, one of Natalie’s client who has been working from home and spending time with her husband and kids said: “I had seen a friend’s pictures on Facebook and I thought, what a brilliant idea to remember. For me, it would be a great thing to have a look back, even though there’s so much horrible things going on, but we are happy we are home.
“So, I really liked the idea capturing us all at home, especially the girls are getting older as well. They didn’t like the idea at first, but I totally loved the idea, but when they realized it was going to be taken in our garden, they were quite happy then.
Julie described Natalie’s concept as a brilliant idea and added: “I will definitely encourage families to be a part of the project. I jumped at the idea and thought it was great, it’s not like an official family portrait but it has a story behind it”.
