This past week Kevin Huver has the opportunity to teach portrait photography to the Boys and Girls Club of Grand Rapids. One dozen girls aged 12-14yrs happily doned cameras for an afternoon to practice a portrait setup with basic contrast magazine or album cover lighting. They then used different light modifiers with and without grids in teams of two shooting each other.
The goal of the session was to emphasis the importance in creating empathetic social interactions to manifest emotional portraits. Heartfelt sensitivity to surroundings is an essential element in creating an emotional photograph. This availability of quick and easy capture devices has displaced some of the fundamental elements of high quality portraiture. Mainly, the ability to create a sustained and real mood surrounding the shoot.
Kevin has remained committed to teaching advanced photography techniques to grow skills in the region. The kids in the boys and girls club are from the lowest income region in Grand Rapids. If they weren't participating in Kevin’s program, they would otherwise be in an unsafe place with likely no access to security or healthy food. With a background of modest means in rural southwestern Michigan, Kevin is a firm believer that where you come from doesn't determine where you go. “If you believe then you can accomplish something and put the time in, the opportunities to success will manifest themselves.”