New book paints portraits of Boulder's homeless

New book paints portraits of Boulder's homeless A book launch event will take place at 7 p.m. Saturday at Cornerstone Community Center, 1190 Lashley Lane. The cost to attend the event is $55 for one person and $75 for a couple and includes one copy of the book. All proceeds from the sale of the hardcover coffee table book will benefit Bridgeouse and Boulder Outreach foromeless Overflow. The book costs $35 and will be available for purchase at Cornerstone and Bridgeouse, 1120 1/2 Pine St., behind the Congregational Church. There isope, with her service dog, Baby. They rescued each other. There is Terri, who was once a concert violinist and lost her violin when her locker at the Boulder shelter was cleaned out while she wasn't there. There is Don, the "igh Plains Drifter," whose distinctive, flamboyant feathered hat will be instantly recognizable to many Boulderites. "Until Theyave Faces" tells the stories of homeless men, women and children in Boulder through portraits and essays. usband and wife David and Elle Page, of Niwot, conceived of the idea for the glossy coffee table book after working on a Boulder Creek cleanup that included some two dozen homeless volunteers, along with people from business, nonprofit and government backgrounds. David Page, a professional photographer, and Elle Page, a leadership and communications consultant, went in different directions along the creek and struck up conversations with some of the homeless people who had come to give back. The people they met inspired the book. "At the end of it, our hearts were changed and touched, and our stereotypes and biases were challenged," Elle Page said. During the car the ride home, David Page, whose work usually includes wedding, portrait and fine art photography, said he wanted to capture the faces and stories of Boulder's homeless and present them in a coffee table book. "I tried to capture their personality," he said. "I tried to give them the same respect I would give any portrait subject." Often, his paying customers will wish to take a last look in a mirror before the shoot.is homeless subjects seemed to have more confidence or self-acceptance, he said, though not necessarily satisfaction with their situation. To put together the book, David and Elle Page frequented the areas of Boulder popular with the homeless -- the public library, the creek path, the bandshell in Central Park -- with Joy Eckstine, who was until recently the executive director of Bridgeouse, Boulder's day shelter and service provider for the homeless. Many of the images were taken in these locations. David Page took high-quality portrait photographs of the subjects. Thirty-five volunteer writers met with the subjects, interviewed them and wrote their stories. Sixteen months later, "Until Theyave Faces" will be officially released at an event Saturday at Cornerstone Community Center, one of the sites of Boulder's rotating overflow warming shelter. The book profiles 48 individuals, couples and families, most of them homeless, several of them formerly homeless, and some of them people whose lives are intimately connected to the homeless through the medical care and other services they provide. "I had to come face to face with biases that I had," David Page said of the process of doing the book, his first. "I want people to confront their own biases. The book gives people an opportunity to meet people and read about them in their own words. I just wish to give people an opportunity to have an interaction that they otherwise wouldn't. Then they have to make a choice." Elle Page said she hopes the book breaks down stereotypes and reminds people of the basic human dignity of the homeless. "This opened our minds that there is not one kind of homelessness, and people have their own hopes and dreams," she said. "We hope people in the mainstream will realize that." Some of the subjects of the book now have housing. Others who had it have lost it since their portraits were taken. A number of community groups and businesses, including several Rotary clubs, the Community Foundation, the International Baccalaureate Club at Niwotigh School, Urban Mattress and all of the Page's own business, donated the $9,000 required for the first print run of 500. That means 100 percent of the proceeds from the sale of the book will go to Bridgeouse and Boulder Outreach foromeless Overflow, which runs the warming shelter. Ken Miller, director of Project Revive, which organized the creek cleanup that kicked off the whole project, said the book is a good example of the kind of collaboration he hopes to promote. "I hope it develops the sense that we're one community," he said. New book paints portraits of Boulder's homeless Trade News selected by Local Linkup on 01/03/2012