It's about Love.
It's about Community.
It's about Healing.
The heart-lifting effort to collect 10,000 photographs of the affectionately-inclined from around the world.
A classic wintry Minnesota Smooch! pic was collected during the Holiday on 44th Celebration, held in Minneapolis, Minnesota on December 6, 2008. Now found in the Smooch! Project Archive category Together: Young Love (1-4 years) Amy luvs Todd captures this engaged couple outfitted in true Northern Minnesota outdoor regalia. Special mention must be made of Amy’s beautiful black knit cap with red trim and tassel, emblazoned with the words, “TONIGHT WE BOWL.” It’s true — a picture IS worth a thousand words. You soon be able to find this image plus many more on the new Smooch! Project website. Speaking of which . . .
The new Smooch! Project website is under construction and is looking really good, if we may say so ourselves! More than 100 never before published images from the archive will be featured. Site visitors will be able to sort the collection by keyword, view slideshows, and email selected pics to friends and family. More archive images will be added each month.
Four Smooch! shoots earlier this month means a pile of photos to sort, edit, and privately post for all of the recent Smooch! participants. These images are being worked on in conjunction with the new website. Emails will go out in early January to all involved, inviting participants to privately view all the photos taken of themselves and their loved ones. If you are a December Smooch! participant, look for this email in the next week or so.
To date, there is only one Smooch! shoot scheduled for 2009: February 7 at the Walker Art Center (see calendar to the right). But if you are an aspiring Smooch! Project participant and cannot make that one, do not despair! The calendar will be updated frequently and several more shoots are in the planning stages. Stay tuned. Until then, good holidays to all!
Only 10 more days left in 2008. No more Smooch! shoots this year. What photo should be used to commemorate this point in time? After careful review, the final selection shown was drawn from the Smooch! Project Archive category All in the Family: Siblings, entitled Molly luvs Lee-Lee. During shoot # 43, held at the Nov. 7, 2008 Seward Arts Festival in Minneapolis, Minnesota, 12-year-old twin sisters Molly and Nina (always referred to as Lee-Lee) deigned to be photographed for The Smooch! Project ONLY if they were allowed to pose for an “air kiss.” After instructing the clueless photographer on exactly what this meant, the dynamic duo then proceeded to demonstrate with great verve how one gives and accepts an air kiss. Their stances, hairstyles and coloring lends a definite Renaissance painterly look to this contemporary image. A fitting salute to 2008: Molly representing the past and Lee-Lee looking toward the future. 2009 is looking very good!
2009 is only 11 days away — Yikes! So much to accomplish between now and then: Four Smooch! shoots worth of photos collected in December to prepare and upload for participants to view as well as rolling out the new Smooch! Project website, now under construction. Exciting times ahead! Be sure to stay tuned.
This Smooch! three-shoot weekend is now at an end. Smoochers abound! Well, truthfully, it was a bit slow at least some of the time. A nice, welcome change of pace for the project. The official stats will be updated in a week or so. Too soon to yet say how many people were photographed or calculate how many archive images were gathered. But the total number of photos captured over the weekend: 1,210 images. Not bad for a cold Minnesota weekend filled with snow flurries, and a national recession to boot! A few pics from the shoots will be posted next week.
The Smooch! volunteers this weekend were total rock stars. Six Smooch! newbies stepped forward to help out over the three shoots and with a little bit of instruction, were off and running. Everyone had a great time — volunteers and participants alike. This project would be not be possible without the help and support of these great and generous people. You’ll be hearing more about them in upcoming Smooch! Project Featured Volunteer entries.
A few Smooch! highlights from the weekend: Bellydancers are now included in the archive collection. Very fun! Also added were several dogs. A huge cat named Prince made his lordly appearance with two of his human attendants. One unique participant offered a ‘universal smooch’ to the world. These photos turned out amazingly well and one will be selected to take its rightful place in The Smooch! Project archive. Finally, an invitation was offered to The Smooch! Project to hold a shoot during an annual science fiction / fantasy convention in July 2009. Thousands of costumed people all converging into one location. Klingons! Borg! String bikinis! If all goes as anticipated, The Smooch! Project will likely be there collecting some of the most unique Smooch! photos ever. May all beings live long and prosper!
One of the great features of a website blog is that people like you are able to add you own comments if you wish. You are invited to do so! Got something to say about the project or the entry above? Got ideas or suggestions for the photographer? Just click on the pencil images below and follow the easy, simple directions. Just a few steps and, before you know it, your comments get posted. Try it! We look forward to hearing from you.
Finally. The first entry on the new Smooch! blog. Here’s where those interested in the project can find the latest info regarding this project, including a calendar for upcoming Smooch! shoots, current stats on how far we’ve come in reaching the goal of 10,000 archive images, and more. In early January, this blog will probably have a new look when it is linked to the brand-spankin’ new Smooch! Project website. Until then, you’ll find it here on Blogger.com.
For those of you interested in participating in an upcoming Smooch! shoot, there are three of them coming right up in Minneapolis. Check the calendar to the right for details. Fellow Twin Citians: The time is fast approaching for The Smooch! Project to hit the road. If you have a wish to Be A Part of Art, it is strongly suggested that you catch a Smooch! shoot soon. All affectionately-inclined people are welcome to participate in this FREE event.
Every month, a new pic from the archive will be featured on the new Smooch! blog. This month, we’ve included David luvs Amy, a photo collected during Smooch! Shoot #43 at the November 7, 2008 Seward Arts Festival in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Amy & David have been married 23 years — and are still going strong! This photo is now part of the newly created Smooch! Project archive category Together: Old Marrieds, for couples celebrating 21+ years together. You’ll be learning all about the 12 categories comprising The Smooch! Project Archive when the new website goes up in January 2009. Before then, everyone is of course welcome to visit the current Smooch! Project website anytime to view the 100 photos already there.
If you had the idea that The Smooch! Project had gotten to where it is today simply through the efforts of the project photographer, you’d be WAY wrong. Over the last two+ years, dozens of people have contributed an incredible amount of time and energy to help this project grow. As a small, heart-felt Thank You to these generous people, The Smooch! Project blog will include a Featured Volunteer section to give these individuals some of the attention they justly deserve. To that end, it is a great pleasure to introduce the first Smooch! volunteer to be featured: Karen Van Wert, shown below in James luvs Karen, a photo pulled from the Smooch! Project Archive category Together: Young Love (1-4 years).
Like The Smooch! Project photographer, Karen is a member of the Minnesota-based organization WPVA (Women Photographers / Visual Artists) where the two artists met. Now a personal friend, Karen has already provided hours of consultation, ideas, and Smooch! shoot support and her strong photographic skills and promotion savvy has made her an ongoing source of inspiration for the project. Karen is shown here with hubby, James Fuchs, in James luvs Karen, a photograph collected during Smooch! Shoot #40 held at the Uptown Art Fair on August 2, 2008. Here, Karen can be seen wearing one of her incredible photographic pendants, samples of which can be found on her website, KVW Creations, along with other gorgeous works of hers. Many more samples of her landscape photographs can be found on her personal Flickr site. Karen has shown her work widely, all of which possesses a very strong yet lyrical compositional strength, a trait that really shines in her pics of common objects as viewed from unusual angles. Many thanks to Karen for freely lending her considerable skills to the needs of The Smooch! Project.
If you have a personal interest in helping The Smooch! Project reach its goal of collecting 10,000 archive photographs, the artist would LOVE to hear from you. As this project is not yet financially self-supporting, all volunteer help is GREATLY appreciated. Please contact the project photographer at photogirl@thesmoochproject.com.
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