Professional photographers are used to taking pictures of the privileged — models, actors, athletes and other celebrities.
Jeffrey Salter typically shoots for Sports Illustrated and Us Weekly. But one April afternoon in New Jersey, the photo shoot focused on children up for adoption.
“We as photographers have been given a gift you know we travel around the world documenting kings, queens, celebrities. But here’s a chance for us to give a gift back,” says Salter.
Salter is one of 150 volunteer photographers taking pictures of kids in need of parents. With the help of talented artists like him, these children get the chance to show off their true colors.
The numbers are hard to hear. Nearly 130,00 children in the U.S. public welfare system are waiting to be adopted. Most are eight-years-old, or even older. These older children are among the hardest to place. Many passed from home to home, enduring neglect, indifference and sometimes violence. The older the children get the more challenging it is because it seems that most of the families want smaller children.
The volunteers capture the essence of the more than 3,000 New Jersey children currently up for adoption. All of the portraits go to an exhibit called Heart Gallery.