Gabriel Doty shares this memory from Help-Portrait Atlanta:

This teen mother and her friend came in, both with new babies about 6 months old. The girls were both a little shy, a little stand offish, but both lit up as I took pictures for them and their babies.

Our site didn’t do onsite printing, but I had happened to bring in my small Canon Selphy printer that does 4x6s just in case. I only had 6 prints in it, and was down to my last 2 when the girls came in, so they got the last two.

The second young girl that I photographed was very quiet as we looked over the shots I had taken, and picked one for their Help Portrait print, as well as which to print for the 4×6 I could give her today. She quietly picked one, and said thank you, nothing more.

I moved on to the next editing task while her friend was having her photo edited at the other computer. A few minutes later I happened to look up as the young girl I had printed the image for was showing it to her friend, tears streaming down her face.

It was perhaps one of the most touching things I have ever seen… Teen mom, one can only imagine the challenges that brought her to this point, huge challenges ahead of her, moved to tears by holding a single picture of her and her daughter.

That is what Help-Portrait is about, guess what I will be doing next December?

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