Photographers Are Aiming To Create Special Holiday Treasures

For Deployed Soldiers And Their Families

By Shannon Hicks

Seeing the world through the lens of her camera has always been Susan Harrington’s passion. And over the years she has developed a second love: that of using natural light and surroundings to create portraits. Her family, including her two children, have been the biggest inspiration, and she has been able to take that built-in inspiration and use it to create special memories for herself and for others who seek her talent with a still camera.

“The best memories captured are not staged, they are moments caught in time, true to the personalities of the people that I photograph,” said the self-taught Newtown-based photographer who specializes in natural light family and children’s portraits.

Claudio Basso, likewise, is someone who has always had a love of photography. Born in Paris in 1959, he had his first darkroom by the time he was 12 years old. It was an eight-square-foot space, but it was filled with the dreams of a young man who has since photographed some of the world’s best known supermodels and whose images have appeared in everything from American Vogue, New York Woman, French Elle, and Italian Vogue to Vanity Fair, Bazaar, Amica and Grazia. He has also contributed to catalogs for Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale’s, Bonwit Teller, and Otto Versand.

His professional career started in Milan, where he mentored with Alberto Nodolini (the renowned art director of Italian Vogue) and opened his first studio. His stylized photographic work was introduced to the United States by Eileen Ford, and snowballed from there into a career that has taken him around the world.

A resident of Newtown since 2002, Mr Basso now specializes in portraiture, but has scaled back on the advertising and catalog work. He and wife Sheri have also been offering Renovance.tv Reality Training workshops in fashion and portraiture for a few years.

This month Ms Harrington and Mr Basso have joined forces with The PhotoImaging Manufacturers and Distributors Association (PMDA) and the grassroots volunteer organization Soldiers’ Angels. They are two of the 150 photographers across the country participating in The Portraits Of Love Project.

Designed to help bring a piece of home to soldiers around the world, the project is offering free family portraits to military family members who have a soldier deployed overseas. The portraits will be uploaded to a website (PMDAPortraitsOfLove.com) and a print will be sent, free of charge, directly to the military members wherever they are deployed around the world.

The goal of the project is to send 10,000 free family portraits during the 2009 holiday season. Families need to contact their photographer of choice before the end of September to participate.

“It’s a phenomenal idea,” said Mr Basso, who heard about the project via an email from an editor of an industry publication. “For a service man or woman to receive a photograph of their family for the holidays, it is very touching. It is indeed my mission with every portrait I take.”

To participate, military families should visit the PMDA Portraits Of Love Project website, and click through a map of the United States to find a listing of participating photographers in their area. As of this week there were six Connecticut shutterbugs available.

Contact information for each photographer is available, and families can arrange directly with the photographer to meet them for their portraits. Valid military IDs will be needed, and families planning to do their portrait at a military base should follow the specific directions for those locations.

Photographers will provide families with instructions on how to locate and then order the image they would like to have sent to their soldier. Fujifilm, one of the project’s sponsors, is also offering coupons so that a free duplicate print will be given to each family.

Susan Harrington has traveled to meet with clients in Fairfield, New Haven, and Litchfield Counties. She prefers to do her work on-site, whether it be someone’s home, a park, or any other setting.

“Wherever you’re most comfortable is where the pictures are going to come out best,” said Ms Harrington, who has a personal interest in Portraits Of Love.

 “My father and my father-in-law were both in the military, and I have a dear friend who has done three tours of Iraq and Kuwait,” she said. “He is stateside now, thank God. But this idea is very dear to my heart.”

Mr Basso has used his talent to help others in the past. A decade ago he created a series of black and white portraits featuring celebrities with infants. Titled “A Star and A Baby,” the collection was successfully auctioned to raise funds for a charity organization devoted to help children born with AIDS.

At the 2009 PMDA Person of the Year dinner in February, Sergeant First Class Toby Nunn spoke about what a photograph can provide to a solider away from home.

“It’s incredible how motivating a simple family photograph can be to a soldier who is far from home,” said Sgt Nunn, who has served two tours in Iraq and has worked with Soldiers’ Angels on a number of projects. “This volunteer effort is one more way that we can help our soldiers cope with their situation.”

For information about the Portraits Of Love Project, visit PMDAPortraitsOfLove.com.

Claudio Basso can be contacted at ClaudioBasso.com. For information about bookings call Sheri Basso at 203-364-7852.

Susan Harrington can be contacted via her website, SusanHarringtonPhotography.com. The Portraits Of Love website also takes visitors directly to both photographers’ websites.