What’s the first thing you think of when you hear Santropol? If you’re thinking of the coffee, you haven’t spent enough time at the Santropol Roulant! It’s an amazing heart-warming organization composed of a small passionate staff and an effervescent community of volunteers. At their core is a meals-on-wheels service which delivers fresh meals to people living with a loss of autonomy, but they also have urban agriculture programs, a bike shop and much more. I first got to know Santropol when Claudia worked there a few years ago, and just recently I had the pleasure of photographing their general assembly. Now I know that general assemblies might not sound like the most exciting thing to photograph, but their assemblies are different. Clients, volunteers, staff, and board members get together in a convivial atmosphere. Smiles are everywhere and there’s no shortage of sweet moments.
This might deviate a bit from my regular portrait and wedding photography, but it’s important for me to photograph subjects I care about (that’s why I’m not a car or nightclub photographer). In the end it’s still about capturing people and moments. As a side dish to my portrait bread and butter, I’ve been wanting to become sort of a Montreal community photographer, documenting the people and organizations contributing to Montreal’s culture.
If you want to make Montreal a better city, want to be part of a lovely multilingual and multigenerational community, learn how you can become a volunteer, even with your busy schedule. All the amazing human beings in Montreal are here. Really. What kind of bad person joins an organization like this? And if you’re reading my blog I’m sure you're great too so you’d be a perfect fit :)
In a typical Santropol Roulant fashion, I'll end this with a bit of dancing. Thanks for reading!