Porch Portraits

I'm a wedding photographer, and this spring, all my weddings were postponed. I was restless. So I started walking around my neighborhood with my camera, offering to take pictures of families on their front porches, from the sidewalk, for free.

I posted the idea in the neighborhood group. Within two days, I had a hundred and forty requests.

Every family was different. A couple in their eighties held hands on the steps. A family of six wore matching pajamas. A young couple held up an ultrasound picture. A man posed with his three cats, all of them in bow ties. A single mom and her twin daughters wore tiaras.

People told me their stories while I worked. People cried a little. People laughed a lot. Then they'd go back inside, and I'd walk to the next house.

By October, I'd photographed four hundred households. The local library made an exhibit of the prints. When I went to see it, I saw a little girl point at a photo and say, "That's my house. That's my family."