The Gay Families Project Fundraiser: Pacific Northwest (Washington and Oregon)

Dear Viewer,

Please help me take the Gay Families Project to the Pacific Northwest.

The Project (www.GayFamiliesToday.com) is producing a photobook featuring American families with parents who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ). Informed by the past, while drawing from the present, and looking to the future, the book intends to help create awareness about the commonality of such “gay families”, especially for viewers in parts of the world where homophobia is still prevalent.

I have been working on this project for close to two years, and have thus far met with and photographed over twenty families in California. With your support, I plan to photograph families living in Washington state this summer, which will give me a better idea as to whether I need to expand the Project to other U.S. states in the future, or continue and complete it in the Golden State alone.

The requested $2000 will cover two weeks of photographing in the states of Washington and Oregon; each additional $80 will buy one more day in the field.

If you wish to pledge, pick your supporter REWARD from the column to the right and follow the sign-up process. The majority of the rewards will be distributed before the end of 2011 (the book draft may require another 1-2 months for production).

Thank you kindly for your support,

Stefan Jora

PS. In addition to staying informed about the development of the Project, all SUPPORTERS will receive a discounted price on the purchase of the final book, upon publication.

Selected Images from the Book:

For a more extensive selection of images, please visit the Project website: http://GayFamiliesToday.com

Testimonials:
 

Despite living in San Francisco and having a somewhat diverse network of peers, I am continually amazed at my kids’ perception of their world still dominated by traditional families. I would love to have a book on my coffee table that showed families like ours. I know that my kids would look at it every day and not feel so alien.

– LGBT parent photographed for the Gay Families Project

Stefan, [your Gay Families Project] is revolutionary. Brave, disquieting and loving. The subjects are too wonderful for words. I was moved by your position throughout. And so pleased to see how you work no formulas with your photos. Very few photographers would be as naturally accepted as you were in this kind of a sensitive situation. You did not let them down or betray their trust.

– Donna Ferrato, Documentarian/Artist

I told Stefan once that if I could give a grant to have him travel around the country and photograph... I would... just to see what he would come back with... his photographs are always interesting...

– Randy Olson, Freelance Photographer, National Geographic Society

Stefan Jora is an autodidact, documentary-based photographer concerned with social issues.

Stefan studied mathematics at a liberal-arts college, economics at a Mormon university, and photojournalism at the Missouri Photo Workshop. In 2007, Stefan was selected to attend the Eddie Adams Workshop, and in 2010 he was invited to participate in the first mentorship program of the Young Photographers' Alliance.

While searching for his own self, Stefan spent the past years exploring issues of cultural and gender identity within various social groups in the U.S.; excerpts from this journey can be seen on his website, at http://stefanjora.com/.