On Valentine’s Night, photographer Hugh Crawford set up his portable portrait studio: ancient grey backdrop, brand new strobe light, and a state-of-the-art Canon digital camera (souped up with a vintage Nikon lens),  at Fou Le Chakra, a small cafe/shop on Seventh Avenue, and waited for friends and neighbors to come in to have their pictures taken.

It was a rainy night and the turnout wasn’t as large as expected but more than 30 people did come by, primed for their close-up. The crowd included plenty of kids who were enthralled with the photographer’s flashing light.

On Saturday, the photographic bounty from that night will be on display at Fou Le Chakra. Crawford has painstakingly printed 30 large-scale and small prints that reveal his unique gift for capturing a subject’s unguarded essence, as well as his unerring sense of composition and timing.

"It’s reflexive in both senses of the word," says Crawford. I try to mirror the subject – so that he or she is, in a sense, looking in a mirror. And for me, it’s about improvisation and reflex; very subsonscous on my part."

There’s a nice symmetry about the show: the photographs are being displayed where they were created. Many of the subjects will be there. It’s amazing how a photograph can transform a rainy night endeavor into a full-fledged work of art.

Hope to see you at the opening on Saturday April 2nd at 3 p.m. The pictures will be up through May 16th. Fou Le Chakra. 411 Seventh Avenue. Between 13th and 14th Streets.

On the last Sunday of every month, Crawford will be setting up his
portable studio at Fou Le Chakra. The Portrait Project is a free sitting and the photographs can be viewed
the very next day at hughcrawford.smugmug.com, where you can order prints. It’s an interesting
concept; easy and inexpensive like a photobooth – but with a
skilled, professional art photographer at the helm. Who can resist? Come to the kick-off event on April 16th at Fou Le Chakra.