Skip to content

Residents were eager to join Front Steps Project

As people face a new normal, with such concepts as social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a couple of southeast Saskatchewan photographers were part of a project that captured local families in a simple but natural setting.

As people face a new normal, with such concepts as social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a couple of southeast Saskatchewan photographers were part of a project that captured local families in a simple but natural setting.

Starr Mercer Photography in Oxbow and Lacie Paige Photography in Estevan were involved with the Front Steps Project. They booked appointments for people to stand on the front step of their home.

Mercer found out about it through the Instagram page of a photographer in the U.S. She messaged her American counterpart, and asked if it would be OK to replicate it in southeast Saskatchewan.

That photographer not only gave Mercer her blessing, but emailed some information on what Mercer could do.

Mercer has clients throughout the southeast region. She had people fill out a form that says where they live, how they’ve been coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, and she started a spreadsheet for each community in which she had interested clients.

“I went to Estevan earlier this week, and we did about 15 families. And then I have another 15 families from Estevan who are interested,” Mercer told Lifestyles.

On one street in Estevan, a woman contacted all of her neighbours to see if they would be interested, and they agreed.

Another 30 families from other communities have signed up.

Mercer estimates she has completed about two-thirds of the sessions. Each one takes about two to five minutes.

“I stand on the road facing people’s houses. They just come out on the front steps and I instruct them on everything that they need to do beforehand via email so that there is no (physical) contact that day. I do talk to them across the road, but that’s it.”

This has allowed her to meet a lot of people. Some people she has photographed for the Front Steps Project are recurring clients that she has known from weddings and other activities. But there have been lots of new clients.

Mercer is volunteering her travel and her time. Rather than charging a fee, she encourages people to donate to their local food bank or the Oxbow Emergency Support Fun, which helps those in need in that region.

“They reached out to me and said that this would be an excellent way for people to donate right now, because they … anticipate a lot of applications,” she said.

About $300 has been donated to that fund so far.

She noted that she washes her hands and cleans equipment constantly, and is about 20-30 feet away from people when snapping the photo. If people are sick, she asks them to reschedule until they are feeling better, but thus far she has not dealt with anyone ill or self-isolating.

“I think it just helps us get a feeling of we’re all together in this. It shows people they’re smiling during all of this, and trying to get something good out of this whole pandemic, and staying at home and being isolated,” said Mercer.

Lacie Paige Carleton, who operates Lacie Paige Photography in Estevan, said she heard of the Front Steps Project through a photographer she met at a retreat a couple of years ago.

“The originator is actually from Ohio, so the originator pretty much reached out to everybody in this big worldwide photography group and said we should all do this and it would be a great thing to do to see how much we could raise towards the communities,” said Carleton.

Carleton decided to join because it gets her out of the house and gets others out of the house as well. In some cases, they have dressed up.

The response was immediate. She did one photo shoot with a friend to test out the system. Since then she had so many messages come in.

Carleton booked 20 photo sessions on Sunday, on what was a perfect day to take photos. Other people wanted her to do it later so that they had more advanced notice. 

“I went out based on neighbourhoods, because I didn’t want to go back and forth,” she said.

People gave her their phone number and their address, and Carleton texted them shortly before she arrived.

“When I got there, they came outside. I stay about six to 10 feet away, because I have a long enough lens, and there’s no contract whatsoever. I take about five minutes.”

Usually she takes just one photo of them smiling, but she’ll take another if they want a goofy picture as well. Some people have had photos taken with their dogs.

Her beneficiary is Riley Raynard and his effort to get a new, specially-designed race car so that he can continue racing. Raynard was born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, but has been able to race hobby stocks since 2012.

“I worked with him at Trent’s Tire for a while, and we became really good friends, and once I heard he was having complications with racing, I immediately started sharing his GoFundMe, trying to get people to donate some money.”

She thought the Front Porch Project was a good way to get people looking forward to the local racing season, and to support Raynard.

And it has proven to be a means to provide some levity during a trying time.