Help Portrait is a wonderful initiative by US based photographer Jeremy Cowart that allows photographers to give back to their local community.

Here in Cork we’ve had support from photographers, make-up artists, hairdressers, magicians and any number of volunteers over the past two years. And we’ve brought a lot of smiles to a lot of faces that would otherwise have had little joy in the run up to Christmas.

This year, both Paul and I are unable to take a role in organizing Help Portrait Cork.

But that doesn’t mean it can’t go ahead.

If you’re based in Cork and would like to carry the initiative forward this year, let us know.

If it’s going to happen, now is the time to start. The most essential thing is for someone to decide within the next few days and drop us a line – so that we can meet you and answer any questions you may have.

It is hard for me to imagine what it must be like to struggle to digest food properly.

I also used to suffer from mild bouts with asthma, a condition that has abated significantly in recent years. Consequently, I have some notion of what it is like to struggle with breathing.

Why do I mention this?

Because of the Irish Professional Photographers Association (IPPA) Happy Faces initiative, the proceeds of which will this year go to the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland (CFAI).

Cystic Fibrosis is a condition that affects primarily your digestive system and your lungs. As a result, sufferers are prone to constant chest infections and malnutrition.

IPPA member photographers throughout Ireland are raising funds to help the CFAI in its work supporting people with the condition by hosting charity portrait sessions.

It’s a great win-win for everyone. You can have a terrific portrait taken by a professional photographer and delivered as a print in return for a €25 donation to the IPPA Happy Faces CFAI fund – the proceeds of which go to the CFAI. Or you might be in business and need a portrait for your promotional material, in which case you can get the image as a JPEG for website use and so on for the same great €25 price.

As part of the Happy Faces initiative, I’ll be hosting a day-long portrait shoot at The Ambassador Hotel here in Cork on Saturday 19th March between 10 and 4pm. If you’d like to book a 15-minute portrait session for you or your partner, spouse, child, parent or a business colleague, please contact me on 021 451 8000.

Proud.

That is how I would describe myself after last night’s launch of Help Portrait Cork 2010 at the Clarion Hotel.

Humbled by the number of people who turned up to pledge their support for the big day in December. Cork is full of good people. Not least the management of the Clarion who gave us the room last night and have offered a huge space for December.

Proud of what we accomplished in 2009. We heard the incredible story of how the experience of Help Portrait last year turned a person’s life around. Hearing it made me catch my breath. There were tears in the room last night.

To think that we did this. To think that everyone who participated in last year’s Cork event contributed in some way to the transformation of a human life for the better is something truly remarkable.

We want to do it again this year. We want to do it bigger and better. Up to four times bigger and better, which is why we are starting with the event planning now. If you want to stand at our side, let me know. If you are elsewhere in Ireland and you want to learn from our experience last year to establish your own event, please get in touch.

As I write these words, I am overcome with positive emotion. The experience of Help Portrait has made me a better man. It has made my life better. So I’m going to thank the two people without whom I wouldn’t feel this way: Jeremy Cowart, whose idea it was; Paul O’Mahony, who drove this on in Cork. Giants, both.

Paul O'Mahony speaks to a handful of last night's early guests. A big thank you to everyone who made it in the end (in no particular order): Marcela Whelan (who will liaise with charities), Alice-Anne Oliver (volunteer host), Eoin Mulligan (photographer), Margaret Smith (who has promised wonderful Umnumnum biscuits in December), Margaret Hegarty (who will deliver the biscuits and be a volunteer host), Emma Hawkett (social well-being charity), Owen Killeen (photographer), Dragan Tomas (photographer), Sandra Brett (social well-being charity), Siobhan Hallissey (make-up artist), Donal Hanafin (our post-production guru and miracle worker), Beatrix Lafosse (PR), Emma Pyne (who will co-ordinate our make-up artists), Elaine O'Callaghan (make-up artist), Siobhan Oliver (singer - that's right, we're having music this year), Algis Raugas (photographer), Philip Daly (photographer) and Joan O'Shea (volunteer host). Thank you also to those who were there in spirit. (c) Roger Overall 2010

Give them a cause, call them to your side – and people are capable of magnificence.

There are a couple of lose ends to tie up, and there may be some additional money yet, but Sunday’s “Bid for Haiti” auction raised just over €2,500 for GOAL‘s relief work.

I’ll be honest. Ten minutes before we were due to begin the auction, the room was empty. Only a handful of people had come to the viewing, none of whom had registered. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t panicked.

But people did come, and they brought their wallets and purses with them. Many of them reaching very deeply into their pockets indeed.

I owe a huge debt of thanks to so many people who helped produce the event. I’ll do my best to list them here – in no particular order.

Organisers:

Paul O’Mahony, Marketing Write Now
Tanja Buwalda & Dee Geaney, PowerMedia
Gabrielle Morehead, Gabrielle Morehead Photography
Claire O’Rorke, Claire O’Rorke Photography
Adrian Roche
Eoin Mulligan
John D Sullivan, John D Sullivan Auctioneers
Richard O’Brien, KJ O’Brien & Co

Contributors:

Gabrielle Morehead, Photography
Claire O’Rorke, Photography
Donagh Glavin, Photography
Philip Daly,  Photography
Ted Murphy, Photography
Mike O’Toole, Photography
Giles Norman, Photography
Peter Cox, Photography
John Lotty, Photography
Calvin Jones, Photography
Donncha O Caoimh, Photography
Donal O Caoimh, Photography
Paul O’Mahony, Marketing Write Now, Photography and Poem
Miriam Barry, Paintings
Sean McCarthy, Paintings and Sculpture
Danielle Sheehy, Painting
Kevin Murphy, Photography
Paul Lynam, Photography
Katie Sullivan, Painting
Mary Payne, Painting
Ryan Whalley, Photography
Treasa Lynch, Photography
Lionel Powell, Sculptor
Kieran Frost, Photography
John Wallace, Photography
Liam Kennedy, Photography
Sheena Jolley, Photographer
Wild Goose Studio
Michael Reeves, Paintings
Martijn Kajuiter, Photography and Autographed Book

Sponsors:

Don McGee, Art and Frame – Framing
Pat Frawley, FotoFinish – Printing
Gresham Metropole Hotel – Venue

General Do-Gooders, Well-Wishers and Super People:

Sabrina Dent, Sunshine and Lollipops
John Handelaar, CorkFM
Damien Mulley
Steve Cox, Cork Marketing Partnership

Please, if you are missing from this list – my humble apologies. Do contact me.

Similarly, if you are on this list but without a link to your website, please let me know and I shall make amends.

TO EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU, A HUGE “THANK YOU”

John D Sullivan, Auctioneer, takes the bids while Paul O'Mahony introduces the lots. (c) Roger Overall 2010

The view from my seat in the studio. (c) Roger Overall 2010

I’ve never given a live radio interview before. Consequently, much of my brain was engaged in a single task: preventing myself from saying “Fxxk” on air.

I’m not really able to tell you what I said using the rest of my head, but I’m told I didn’t sound like a vegetable. So that’s good.

There had been talk of an interview to promote the Bid For Haiti auction on a local radio station for a couple of days. I wasn’t sure which one, or where I had to be, or when. All I knew was that if it were to happen I’d find out about it fairly last minute.

At 11.55 today I was pulled over in my car, blocking someone’s driveway, speaking to Paul O’Mahony, my main co-organizer on the Bid For Haiti project. Through the wonderful Sabrina Dent we had been invited on to John Handelaar‘s one-hour lunchtime talk show on CorkFM. I needed to be at the studio in under 45 minutes. The directions were … let’s say “interesting”.

Long story short, CorkFM is a fledgling radio station (87.7 on FM) with a license to broadcast on 15 consecutive weekends. After that, they’ll go for a year-long license, followed by a full 10-year broadcasting permit. And best of luck to them.

At the minute they are broadcasting from temporary space by Kilbarry House on the outskirts of Cork with equipment begged and borrowed from a range of sources. It’s the kind of place that’s round the back of somewhere, down that lane, you know the one, on the left, and through the gate with the broken pillars.

I only got lost once.

So did Paul.

I’d just like to say a big thank you to Sabrina, John and Donal (the station owner) for giving us so generously of their airtime.

You’ll also be happy to know that I didn’t say “Fxxk” on air.

But Paul did say “Bugger”.

BID FOR HAITI

Charity Auction of Paintings, Photographs, Sculptures and Writing

Sunday 14th February 2010

Metropole Hotel, MacCurtain Street, Cork

Registration and viewing from 11am

Auction starts at 3pm

All proceeds to go to GOAL’s relief work in Haiti

Online Catalogue

From left to right: John, Donal and Paul having a pre-interview chat. (c) Roger Overall 2010

CorkFM owner Donal listens to the station's broadcast before we go on in a room across the hall from the studio. At this point, nobody has sworn on air. (c) Roger Overall 2010

John Handelaar chats across the console to Paul during a song. (c) Roger Overall 2010

Artists, photographers and sculptors are donating works to be auctioned to raise money for GOAL’s relief effort in Haiti.

The auction will be held at the Gresham Metropole Hotel in Cork. Viewing of the lots and bidder registration starts at 11am. The auction itself is from 3pm onwards.

An online catalogue is starting to build up here: Bid for Haiti

Please tell everyone you know.

If you are an artist, photographer or sculptor and would like to donate a piece of art to the auction, please get in touch with me on 021 451 8000.

"North Sea" - A rare depiction of a modern ship at sea by Danish maritime artist Johannes Moeller

I do own it, however, and I love it.

It was part-payment for a job I did many, many years ago when I was a freelance PR consultant in the UK. It is both beautiful and significant, as there are very few paintings of modern ships at sea by significant artists. [UPDATE: My good friend Paul O'Mahony found this on the internet: North Sea.]

I am donating it, along with prints of my own work, to the “Bid for Haiti” auction that I am helping to organize.

Nationally- and internationally-renowned artists, photographers and sculptors will be giving original pieces to be sold at the event, which will be held on Sunday 14th February at the Gresham Metropole Hotel here in Cork. Viewing and registration will be from 11am, and the auction itself will get underway at 3pm.

This is going to be a phenomenal opportunity for bidders to acquire original works, none of which have a reserve price on them.

All the proceeds from the auction will go to GOAL‘s Haiti relief effort.

Please spread the word about the auction. Blog, twitter, facebook… anything you can do to help publicize the event would be fantastic.

And if you have a chance, please come along. There will be some wonderful things up for auction. What could be more rewarding than filling that blank space on your wall with art that helped alleviate some of the suffering in Haiti?

Today, though, I am going to be lazy work smart.

Paul O’Mahony, who got Help Portrait started here in Cork, has done all the legwork and produced a list on his blog of those who helped us organize the event. You can find it here:  “Roll of Honour”. By the way, if anyone is missing [God, we hope not] do let us know and we’ll make sure you’re recognised.

Paul has also produced a short version of our story on Flickr .