About the Project

The Sign of Hope Project was originally created by Matt Longmire, a documentary filmmaker in Seattle, WA. The idea came from a curiosity about the signs held by panhandlers around the city. You can only imagine the stories behind each of those signs as you walk or drive by those asking for spare change. The idea to make a documentary about their stories quickly evolved into a mixed media project with the goal of raising money to help fight homelessness.

Matt immediately looked to Justin Edwards and Nathaniel Perales, two good friends from Los Angeles who also happened to be photographers. A collaboration of the three determined that while filming the documentary, Nathaniel & Justin would take portrait photographs digitally and on film of the interview subjects in order to host a photo gallery show in Seattle where they would invite different homeless organizations to accept donations at the event.

The real question came when it was asked how the project would be funded. Kickstarter.com, a “crowd-funding” site was used and a campaign was launched to raise money for the project. With only a few days remaining, it looked like the project wasn’t even close to reaching it’s funding goal and be able to proceed. After a radio interview with Matt Longmire and Linda Thomas of KIRO radio aired, it was within minutes that an amazing investor stepped up and filled in the remaining funding in order to ensure the project succeeded. This book credits them on the very first page and owes this project to all of it’s incredible backers.

At the time of this first edition’s release, the gallery show will have yet to occur but only be days away.

You can visit www.signofhopeproject.com to see any news on the progress of the photographs, film, and funds raised for charity.