Four-year-old Binny Stoner attended Montana State University’s annual Community Portrait Day, walking through the Visual Communications Building with her grandfather. The event, organized by students in the School of Film and Photography, provided free holiday portrait sessions to 44 families from the Gallatin Valley on December 6, serving a total of 182 people.
Binny’s parent, Olive Stoner, explained the significance of the event for their family. “Binny was really shy the first year, but the students were all behind the camera trying to get her to smile and give her balloons,” Olive said. “The second year she was so excited. Everyone just flocked to her and said, ‘What do you want? Here you go, sweetie. Can we give her candy?’”
The program began 15 years ago with MSU photography professor Alexis Pike and has since become an annual tradition. Families received an 8-by-10-inch print and about a dozen digital images from their session. Eleven photography students in an advanced lighting practices course spent the fall semester preparing for the event, raising over $3,000 to support it. In addition to portraits, children received bags of toys and gift cards.
Course instructor Matt MaCoy described Community Portrait Day as both a technical learning experience and an opportunity for students to connect with families who may not be comfortable in front of a camera or speak English as their first language.
Sarah Ebel, a senior photography student from Bozeman, said: “I think that’s my favorite thing about photography: getting someone who’s not so confident and making them more confident with the photo.”
Ebel worked with families in the studio alongside fellow student William Heig. Mother Kendra Beltran shared how photographers accommodated her autistic son: “The photographers were willing to listen to me make suggestions like, ‘Can somebody do this noise or something?’ because I knew that would make him look at them and start smiling,” Beltran said. “It was really cool to work with them because they made it so comfortable and easy.”
Beltran noted that growing up on reservations in Montana and South Dakota meant limited access to professional portraits. She described Community Portrait Day as an opportunity for her family to create lasting memories.
Haixia Liu and Chunming Zhu have attended Community Portrait Day for eight years with their daughters. Zhu recalled how much their children enjoyed activities at the event: “They really enjoy it. They have food, balloons for decoration and last year they had a corgi dog,” he said.
While waiting for photos to be edited by students such as Jenna Sorg from Denver, families socialized and watched images being retouched at editing stations. Sorg observed: “They had some of the most fun photos, like the dad was holding the kid upside down, and the little girls were being tickled, and they were all having fun,” she said. “We brought them over to see the photos, and the kids loved it. It warmed my heart.”
