Project: Pay It Forward

(Note: please excuse any grammatical/spelling errors in this document.  I wrote this while being completely brain dead after work, so it may not make a whole lot of sense.  Once it’s been edited, things will be much clearer)

Attention!  Potential Contributer!

In order to participate in Project: Pay It Forward you must be invited to contribute by a fellow photographer who is already part of the Project!  This also means that you are willing to let the other photographer take your Portrait and then submit it to the collaberation address.  If you do not wish to have your Portrait taken, you are not eligible to help out on the Project!  You have to be willing to volunteer first before you are able to assist in the experiment!  Please DO NOT start your own chain of Portraits as this will skew with the overall results!  The project is already underway, so you do not need to be the first person to start it off.  It will hopefully one day end up in your hands, and when it is time, you are free to contribute then.  Thank you for your patience!  If you are ready to make your contribution, please continue reading.

Over at Photojojo, a Project idea has made it’s appearance on their main site.  Project: Pay It Foward is a very simple concept that begins with the click of the shutter.  The rules are quite simple, you start the Project by taking a Portrait Photograph of another Photographer that you know.  Sounds simple, right?  Well, want to put my own twist to Project: Pay it Foward and bring it to a centralized location, here at my site.

Here’s what I want to do.  I’m going to start up the project by going out and finding a fellow Photographer that is willing to have their portrait taken and is also willing to join in on this little experiment.  From there, they will hopefully continue the chain of events and it will be off and running.  Now, at this point it sounds like there isn’t likely going to be a sound result for the Portraits taken, but here’s where my site comes into play.  As each photographer takes the Portraits of their fellow photographer, they then submit their photo to me at the following e-mail address: payitforward@tonylynch.ca.  As the project grows and expands, I will slowly begin the creation of a collaberative collage of photographs of the Photographers as they’re submitted.  The expected end result?  Well, hopefully, as the Project is passed from the hands of photographer to photographer, hopefully it will escape the bounds of the Edmonton city limits and eventually become a world wide event.  I know that’s quite the optimistic look at this, but wouldn’t it be absolutely wonderful to one day stumble across a collage of photographs containing Portraits of photograpehrs all across the world?  The goal may be a something we’ll need to work at, but in the end it will definitly be a wonderful achievement to have hundred, thousands, or even millions of photographs compiled into one giant collage.  At least I think so!

So that being said, we all have to start somewhere, so let me introduce the rules (Originally  from Photojojo and edited by myself):

  1. Find another photographer.
  2. Take a portrait of that person with whatever matters most to them, be it their family, their cat, or their first-edition copy of Molecular Quantum Mechanics.
  3. Give them a copy of their portrait, on one condition: they have to do the same for another photographer.
  4. Submit your photograph of the photographer to payitforward@tonylynch.ca
  5. Be sure to add a location of the photographer, a name/nickname, and the date it was taken.  If they have a gallery website, feel free to include the link!
  6. When submitting, please include the name/nickname of the user who previously took your Portrait!  This ensures that the consistancy of the project remains true to it’s nature and acts as a minor security check.  If a name/nickname isn’t added in the e-mail the photograph will not be accepted :(
  7. Direct the next photographer in line to the Project: Pay It Forward section of this website. (tonylynch.ca -> “Project: PIF” on the header menu below the slideshow)
  8. Have them read the rules, and description.
  9. The new photographer will then rinse and repeat steps 1-8!*

*It is quite possible that the “token” will be returned to you by another fellow photographer.  If this happens to be the case, and you are holding the token for the second time, please feel free to make another contribution, but be sure it’s of someone else this time.  This will hopefully allow any possible continuous circles from appearing.

The Rules:

  • - No pornographic content!  All Portraits must be Safe For Work and viewable by all audiences!
  • - Photograph must be a Portrait.  Any photographs submitted that do not clearly define the subject of the Photographer will immediately be voided.
  • - Only submit ONE photograph when sending in your submissions.
  • - Any skill level of photographer can participate.  Do not worry, we’re not hear to judge you.
  • - Any type of camera can be used.  Be it a DSLR to a cheap kodak wind-up camera.
  • - All photos must be submitted electronically via the e-mail provided.
  • - You must include the name/nickname of the photographer before you.
  • - All photographs submitted will be used in a collective collage.  By submitting your photograph, you are agreeing to let me use your image file in the collage.  Photographs will NOT be used in anything else and all rights will remain reserved for the original content creator.
  • - This Project is for camera owners who consider themselves Photographers.  Photographers are people who own a Camera, enjoy taking pictures for a living or as their hobby and have some sort of collection of photographs either online or on their computer.
  • - This is a Photographic collaboration, meaning that we do not want excessive Photoshop work done to your submissions.  Tonal adjustments to the photographs are just fine, but please do not do any excessive Photoshopping to your picture.
  • - Be creative!

It is VERY important that when you are passing this project along that you let the subject of your portrait know that this is an on-going Photography experiment!  If you pass the experiment into their hands, be sure that they are willing to partake and join in on the fun before letting them loose into the wild with their camera!  This project’s survivability lays in the hands of YOU!

So get out there, find a friend or even a stranger who is a Photographer and help bring Project: Pay It Forward to life!