Israel PORCHraits: Documenting coronavirus lockdown via family photographs
Despite coronavirus lockdown, Lisa Rich found a new outlet – taking family photos outside the front doors, balconies and porches of peoples’ homes and apartments.
By ALAN ROSENBAUMELIANNA & Ariel Stern, Tel Aviv(photo credit: LISA RICH PHOTOGRAPHY)
‘Photography is, first of all, how you relate to your client, and the connections that you build with them,” says photographer Lisa Rich. When the corona pandemic hit Israel, Rich, who specializes in family photography and small events, no longer had clients with whom to connect.“Every family photo shoot, bar/bat mitzvah, family reunion, newborn and pregnancy session – gone – as if the end of the world had arrived. I found myself with an empty calendar.”Rich – who lives in the town of Beit Horon near Modi’in, with her husband and three children under the age of four – spent the first few weeks, like most parents, sharing lockdown time with her children: planning art projects and activities, organizing color-themed meals, and turning their hall into a racecar track for her tots.“I was supermom,” she says.Compounding her isolation was the fact that her husband, a civil engineer working in road design, was spending most days and evenings at work, because the coronavirus had caused the streets to be emptied of traffic.“He was working more than the doctors,” she quips. “I was alone with no business, and with three screaming children. I was screaming.”Rich, looking for a creative outlet, read of a trend that had been taking shape in the United States, in which photographers were taking lockdown portraits of families through the large picture windows of their homes, and decided to adapt it for Israel – by taking family photos outside the front doors, balconies and porches of peoples’ homes and apartments. She called it “Israel PORCHraits.”“In the US, their windows are at ground level, and our houses don’t look as nice from the outside,” she explains.Rich contacted a few friends and began taking family photos outside their homes. In addition, she asked each family that she photographed to write a brief note expressing how the pandemic had affected them. Families who were in isolation relished the opportunity to meet and greet other human beings. Rich arrived at each of their homes, standing at the approved social distance, wearing a mask, as family members posed outside their front door or in front of their building.THE BROWN FAMILY, Beit Shemesh (Photo Credit: Lisa Rich Photography) “The families were so thankful,” she recounts. “They would say, ‘This is the first time we have stepped outside in weeks.’”Rich says that for the subjects, writing their comments was as therapeutic as leaving their homes and having their pictures taken.“I received messages from mothers saying, ‘Thank you for giving me the opportunity to sit down, think and process what these past weeks have been like for me and my family.’ This gave them an opportunity to put their feelings on paper.”One couple commented, “My wife and I believe deeply that we all have a purpose in this world. The COVID-19 lockdown has made us appreciate even more how responsible we are for one another.”A young family that recently made aliyah wrote, “We moved to Israel only 10 days before a countrywide lockdown. We picked up our home in New York City to move to our new home in Tel Aviv. We very quickly got to know our home. Not in a typical sense by learning the neighborhood, street names, where to buy what or meeting people in shul, etc. But instead we got to know the four corners of our apartment, the 100 meters of our block (we quickly learned the metric system), met our shul community through WhatsApp/Zoom, the restaurants that deliver and how home improvement workmanship is considered ‘essential work.’ It has been an interesting transition, and by no means ‘normal,’ but we could not be prouder to call this land our home. We look forward to the day that we can welcome our friends and family to our new home as well!”A new mother commented on a photo of her holding her newborn child“A corona baby. This wasn’t the world I planned on bringing my baby into. This wasn’t the Passover I thought we’d be celebrating. And this wasn’t the maternity leave I planned on having. It has been quite a journey! One day, little Ella, I will tell you about the world you were born into.”RICH VISITED 80 different homes in Ra’anana, Modi’in, Jerusalem, Hashmonaim, Beit Horon, Efrat and Beit Shemesh for her ‘Israel PORCHraits’ project.“Meeting every single family is a different experience,” she says. “Each has their dynamic – newlyweds, pregnant mothers, families with multiple children.”Viewing the project as an opportunity to jump-start her business, she did not charge for the photos, and says that she learned a great deal about herself and how she views photography.“I realized that I love the style of photojournalism, capturing a real moment in time, and I would like to experiment in that realm of photography. I love capturing people and emotions – that’s really what I learned about myself. I realized that what catches the audience is not only the picture, but it’s the visual plus the emotion. Adding that aspect of emotions through the blurbs brought it to the next level for the viewers.”From left: DANIEL & Talia Rubin, Tel Aviv (Photo Credit: Lisa Rich Photography)Rich believes that photographers taking pictures at family homes will become a popular trend.“There is a future in a photographer coming to your home for a quick photo session. Families love pictures of themselves, and the stress of getting ready, going to a location and the whole to-do, really turns off the family from wanting to do a shoot. Taking pictures at home is calming and relaxing. Families love this. It’s so easy – no drives, no snacks, no water bottles. It’s just quick and fun.”Rich, who was born in St. Louis and made aliyah with her family to Ra’anana in 1998 when she was nine years old, has enjoyed taking pictures since she was a child. Her grandparents, who moved to Israel from Hungary after World War II, were professional photographers – the first husband-and-wife photographic duo in Netanya.Rich studied communications at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya and began shooting family portraits as a part-time job after college. She then joined Yachad Israel, working with special-needs children. After her third child was born in August 2019, she decided to pursue her dream of becoming a full-time photographer, and opened Lisa Rich Photography. Rich notes there are similarities between the two professions.“In both professions, you must be relatable and a people person. Your client is opening up to you and you are placed in a very personal and vulnerable situation with them. In both, you are also providing them a service where they need to trust you in order for you to do your job in the best way possible.”NOW THAT Israelis are beginning to leave their homes, return to work and school, and resume a more normal life, Rich has resumed her regular photographic work, though she still is offering her PORCHraits package for a nominal fee. She is also developing a program for small businesses that have been hit hard by the financial crisis, offering a package of promotional business photos and posting a blurb from each business detailing how they have been affected by the lockdown, and detailing their future plans for customers. The photos can be used by the businesses on Facebook and Instagram, and using one of Instagram’s business-friendly features, when Rich posts the story on her own account, both her followers and the business’s followers will see it.Rich says that in order to be a successful photographer, one must enjoy connecting to people, and chuckles, “You need to roll with the punches, because anything and everything can happen during a photo shoot. You just have to go with the flow. That’s more important than the technology.”DEVORAH & David Katz, Efrat (Photo Credit: Lisa Rich Photography)Recalling some go-with-the-flow moments from her PORCHraits project, Rich says that one family had signed up to have their picture taken, but when she arrived at their building, the mother insisted that the building was too ugly to be used as the backdrop and instead wanted to have the photos taken at a nearby park.“It took a while for me to explain to her that the whole idea is to have the home behind them and that parks are currently off-limits. Instead of it being a five-minute session, it turned into 30 minutes. Thank God, she finally understood and agreed.”While photographing another family on their porch, Rich relates that one child got his finger stuck in the ledge just as she began snapping photos.“The boy was screaming in all of the photos, and I had to wait until they freed him to take a ‘happy’ portrait,” she adds.Rich loves visiting her 90-year-old grandmother, who has long since retired from the photography business, and bringing her latest photos to show her.“Of course she loves them,” she shares. “My grandmother says that being a photographer is genetic. Either you have it in your blood, or you don’t.” As to whether her children have futures as photographers, she laughs and says, “They love taking selfies with my cellphone. The future is bright, but we don’t know yet.”Lisa Rich says that what she enjoys most about photography is that each experience is unique.“Every family, location and season is different, which makes the job fresh and exciting.”She adds that usually photographers are hired to mark and document a happy event, whether it is a new baby, a brit, a family get-together or celebration of a family milestone.“The happiness is contagious and is such a great atmosphere to work in. It hardly feels like work.”
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