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.
JEANNE KOHLHAAS hadn’t intended on becoming a Smooch! Project Hero when she first asked me about my work during the summer of 2009. All the questions she had for me were on behalf of a friend of hers who had recently purchased an expensive camera but couldn’t seem to get around to actually using it. Jeanne worked at the apartment building I lived in at the time. She knew I was a photographer because of the equipment I was constantly lugging in and out of my space there. Jeanne wanted to know what my photographic work was about and whether I would be willing to speak with her friend. Of course, I gave her an earful about The Smooch! Project. But a few days later, out of the blue, Jeanne volunteered to manage an upcoming Smooch! shoot. Wow. No matter how often things like this happen, I remain constantly amazed at the profoundly positive effect this project has on people. We held the shoot and Jeanne did a bang-up job. She also succeeded in talking her fiance, Dave, to show up and be photographed, as evidenced by the archive photo above. (Nope, I did NOT enhance the color of Jeanne’s awesome hair in this photo.) Later, I asked for some of her thoughts regarding her experience. “It’s impossible to be at a shoot or visit the website and not feel good about what’s happening — and the potential for what can happen,” Jeanne said. I wholeheartedly agree. The Smooch! Project is most definitely entering a great and exciting future, as it moves forward with the able assistance of Heroes like her. Thanks, Jeanne, for your generous assistance during that shoot. Plus a great big congrats on the first anniversary of your October 31, 2009 “Hallo-wedding.” The future looks bright for you two as well!
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