The year was 2009, and the world was in the depths of the Great Recession.
Photography assignments had almost disappeared. As a result, he had a great deal of time on his hands and began looking for a project that would keep him occupied until the economy recovered.
After reading months of Anchorage Daily News obituaries, he began to notice the lack of photographs for deceased homeless individuals. Their death notices included only name, place of birth, and cause of death, often exacerbated by exposure to Alaska’s harsh environment. His wife, Mitzi, suggested he find a way to photograph these individuals so they might have a final human connection. He recognized it as a strong idea and set out to make it happen.
Mitzi suggested their local, gymnasium-sized community soup kitchen, Bean’s Cafe, where up to 300 people received a warm lunch and an opportunity to come in from the cold. He created a portable three-light studio and transported it to the site, where he began persistently encouraging people to pose. Most were very apprehensive, and he later reflected that he might have had better luck offering free root canals. At the end of the day, he had convinced only six people to participate.
He sent the six files to a local photo printer and had two 5×7-inch prints made for each. When he returned the following week, set up his studio again, and distributed the prints, the response was immediate. A line quickly formed in front of his portable studio. By the end of the two-hour session, he had photographed 35 people and realized the project would succeed.
Each time he returned to the café, he placed the previous session’s prints on empty tables. People gathered around, smiling at their portraits. He noticed an older man with tears streaming down his face. When he asked if he was okay, the man explained, “I have never had a photograph of myself.” At first, he thought the man meant a professional portrait. “No,” the man clarified, “I have never had a photo of any kind. I will send one of these to my daughter. She lives in Florida… I have never met her.” It quickly became clear that, for many of the people he photographed, his attention was unusual and deeply meaningful.
From August 2009 through November 2010, he made twelve additional visits to Bean’s Cafe and ultimately produced over 350 unique portraits, each with names and keywords. This database was later provided to the café’s director, and in the years since, the images have been used for multiple purposes, including photographic submissions to the Anchorage Daily News.
About Clark James Mishler
Clark James Mishler is a documentary portrait photographer who, after a long career working in Alaska, has settled in the Northern California community of Calistoga. After graduating from the Art Center College of Design in the 1970s and working as a layout editor for National Geographic Magazine in Washington, D.C., he relocated to Anchorage, Alaska, where he spent four decades as an environmental portrait artist, creating images for editorial and corporate clients. Since his semi-retirement in Calistoga, he has devoted much of his time to producing new documentary portraits and fine art archival prints. [Official Website]
