Portraits for Restore NYC

I've personally been involved with Restore NYC since 2008, when my friend Peter Ong and a few others helped to spearhead an effort for social justice awareness through Christian churches and non-faith-based organizations in NYC. Restore is a growing nonprofit dedicated to restoring freedom, safety and hope for foreign-born survivors of sex trafficking by providing long-term, holistic aftercare services .

In November 2011, I was excited to work with Restore once again, when they commissioned photographer Minnow Park and I to tackle the large task of capturing new images to accompany their new website launch and visual campaign to better reflect their ongoing mission. The shoot involved several weeks of model casting, scouting, and production, including covering spaces in the Restore safehouse, where clients were living and establishing themselves in a heallthy environment. Other scenes were shot in urban environments where the act of trafficking could potentially occur, implying thematic and geographical allegories to the issue. No actual victims/clients were used in the shoots.

It was definitely a challenge to stage, represent, and shoot these types of images, considering I shoot mostly weddings. Nevertheless, it was a good exercise in exploring a different type of portraiture, in an attempt to understand the emotional and physical catharsis of a survivor of sex trafficking. In the process of developing these photographs, I could not help but educate myself more on both the compounding problem, and the greater hope that is now accessible to a growing number of rescued victims each year. I learned a lot through this.

Production: Fay Sarjono, Faith Huckel, Savina Kim-Johnson, Minnow Park
Video: Gabe Leavell
B Camera, Long Island City Set: Edmond H Lee
Assistants/Grips: Norm Mui, Lance Villio, Evangel Fung, Justin Ong

Models: Melissa Smith, Katie Ostrowski, Theresa Leigh, Mia Santiago, Amanda Chapman

Eddie + Angela's Engagement | Queensbridge Park + Tribeca, NY

Eddie and Angela approached me a while back to envision a unique set of engagement portraits. They wanted to reflect on their time here in New York with distinct images of downtown, while celebrating their Korean heritage and photographing a set of images for their family back in South Korea. Eddie also had recently purchased a Vespa, which I suggested we get into the shoot!

The day started in Queensbridge Park amidst a backdrop of peaking foliage between Triboro Bridge and the Hell's Gate Bridge (named after the treacherous strait that flowed between - a spot where many boats in early New York City history got stuck between). The stunning architectural perspective under Hell's Gate gave way to some great pullback shots.

Afterwards, we hiked over to Tribeca where we met up with one of my filmmakers, Gabe Leavell of StayUpProductions, to coordinate the Vespa shoot. We did quite a few laps around town, with Gabe and I hanging out of an SUV capturing Eddie and Angela. After a month of planning, this was probably the most pre-production I've had to put into an engagement shoot, but well worth it. Our video footage is still being worked on, but we'll release it soon! We ended the day at Battery Park City, chasing the sun as it set on an amazing and memorable Fall afternoon!

Above: Much credit to Andy Cheung, Eddie's business partner and assistant for our entire shoot.