The Matter
Community-based photography and visual literacy project in collaboration with Street Roots Vendors and Gwen Hoeffgen
Portland, Oregon
2025 - Ongoing
2025 - Ongoing
Featured Artists:
Bronwyn Fiona Carver. Douglas (Wookie N. Marcks). Duane (Casper).
Frank Cobb. George McCarthy. Joan. J.C. Slade. Lore. Machiavelli.
Meta 4(Sadie). Rue Nunez. Shaggy Douglas. Russel Sydow.
Every Wednesday at the Street Roots’ School in the Sky, vendors gather for a photography workshop led by Gwen Hoeffgen and Domenic Toliver. Using photography, participants explore Portland and document the city from the perspective of those who know its streets better than anyone.
The project emerged from conversations with vendors George McCarthy, Daniel Cox, Street Roots intern and collaborator Mac McDonald, and Street Roots Vendor Program Assistant Valencya Valdez, around access, representation, and authorship. In response to vendors’ interest in photography, the workshops focused on basic camera techniques, visual literacy, and narrative development.
Each session begins with group discussion—examining well-known photographs and considering how composition, lighting, and conceptual intent shape meaning. The group also moves through downtown Portland, applying these ideas in practice in Photo Walks. On their freetime in between meetings, participants document everyday details, challenges, and moments of beauty encountered in the city’s public spaces.
The resulting photographs reveal a side of Portland that is often unseen. More about lived experience rather than distant observation, the images center vendors as image-makers and authors—trusting that those who live the stories are the ones meant to tell them.
The work lives in forms of zines, handmade photo books that are personally made by each vendor, published copies and photos printed.
These works have been displayed in exhibitions such as Photos of Things that Matter at Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, Oregon in their Community Wall Exhibit for the Decmeber 2025 Show and at Portland Arts Collective in collaboration with Jim Lommasons “What We Carry”
The work is selected and curated by the Photographers based on availabilty and access and with assistance by Gwen and Dom.
Each Photographer continues to carry the rights, ownership, and control of their creative works.
Exhibition View at Blue Sky Gallery
Exhibition View at Portland Arts Collective in Collaboration with Jim Lommasons “What We Carry”
The works are for sale at monthly Art Markets put together by The Matter.
The Market is a space for belonging, community and an avenue to make alternative income.