Linda Solomon is an award-winning photojournalist who has met some of the most famous people in the world. But some of the people that have made the biggest impression on her have been the homeless children she has met who live in shelters.
Last week she was here launching her Pictures of Hope project, which she has been doing since 2006, at Sheffield Place. Since 1991 Sheffield Place has served a growing population of homeless mothers and their children in the Kansas City area. She will return once again in November when the project concludes.
Through Pictures of Hope, Solomon visits 12 shelters each year. At Sheffield Place, as she does with every shelter she visits, Solomon gave the children, who are between the ages of 6 and 12, a photography lesson. She then surprised them with cameras and gave them their first photo assignment: capture their “hopes and dreams.” The children will celebrate their “Pictures of Hope” at a Meet the Young Artist Reception at 4 p.m. Nov. 14 at Cable Dahmer Chevrolet. Chevrolet is the national sponsor for Pictures of Hope.
A celebrated photojournalist who is a member of the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame, Solomon finds time in her busy schedule to mentor these homeless children because she believes there is a huge need to show them that their dreams matter.
“It’s the most gratifying experience I’ve had in my career. I have met absolutely wonderful children and they express true values when you ask them to reveal what they are dreaming for in their lives,” Solomon said.
Unlike what you might think, most of these children do not dream about material things.
“The No. 1 hope I have seen all across the country is to go to college. This is so often taken for granted by children, but children living in shelters never take a college education for granted. So the things they express are so heartfelt and so meaningful and express true life lessons for all of us. I’ve learned so much from the children,” she said.
The dream of going to college is, of course, for themselves. Almost all their other dreams, Solomon pointed out, are for others.
“They are so unselfish. You never see iPads or iPods. When you read their lists they hope for their moms to be happy. They hope for their sisters to go to college. They hope for a home of their own. That’s the only material thing I ever see when I ask the children to write down what they are hoping and dreaming for.
“I’m always so touched and moved by what they hope for because they are so truly caring for everyone else in their family and they always hope for their families to be happy,” she said.
Another hope that originally surprised Solomon was the desire to have a friend. She said because they move around from place to place — from a car to a shelter to a hotel and sometimes even back to a shelter — they often aren’t at a place long enough to form friendships.
“I have seen that so often where a child will express, ‘I hope for a friend.’ How beautiful is that? Just to be able to appreciate a wonderful friend and to hope and dream to have one,” Solomon said.
Friendships is one of the reasons Solomon brought this program to Kansas City. Her college roommate Arlene Gersh Rubenstein lives here as does close friend Charlie Helzberg, who assisted her with plans for the local project. Sheffield Place was recommended by a fellow member of the International Women’s Forum.
Every child that participates in the project will have one of his or her pictures made into a Pictures of Hope holiday card. The set of cards will be distributed and sold by Sheffield Place. The shelter will keep 100 percent of the sales proceeds to help fund programs.
Solomon will return to Kansas City in November for the reception, where the cards will be unveiled for the first time. The reception is open to the public. Cable Dahmer will also give a set of cards to every person who purchases a car at the dealership during the holiday season and makes a donation to Sheffield Place.
The Pictures of Hope project has been featured by several national news outlets including CBS Evening News, ABC World News, NBC Nightly News and the Today show.
Professionally her work has been featured in Time, Newsweek and The New York Times. One of her favorite assignments is photographing the Oscars. She is regularly one of only 115 photojournalist invited from all over the world to cover the star-studded event and has been doing so for 29 years.
Solomon has also been the author or photographer for a number of books. She often collaborates on projects with her sister, Today show contributor Jill Rappaport. One of her favorites is “Mazel Tov” where celebrities shared their Bar and Bat Mitzvah memories.
“I was the photographer on that book. It was really fun to work on that. We had everybody from Howie Mandel to Larry King to Kirk Douglas, Marlee Matlin, Henry Winkler. We used their Bar and Bat Mitzvah photos and then I tried to match them with current photos,” she said.
She said she and her sister are proud of their Jewish heritage and “love to give back” to the community.
“That is certainly a wonderful characteristic of our Jewish faith,” she said. “It’s so special to meet such giving, caring people. I do this all over the country but the people of Kansas City have been so wonderful and so welcoming and so helpful to me.”
Her work with homeless children is all about dispelling misconceptions.
“Most of the families I have met are homeless due to economic hardship,” she said. “Mentoring these children is so important because many of their skills are lacking because they’ve moved so frequently. If any of your readers would ever want to volunteer and mentor these children it’s so needed … That’s why through photography children reveal things they’ve never shared before. I’ve seen some heartbreaking things.”