Three UK photographers have set up an international project to help the victims of the Tohoku earthquake in Japan. The Print Aid Project now involves renowned photographers and designers from around the world who have donated their images to be sold on the project website – http://theprintaidproject.com with all money raised going to the Red Cross charity.

The project is raising money in two ways:

• A selection of prints are being sold at a special reduced rate from the website. This allows people to pick up a bargain while helping the charity.
• Other limited edition prints will also be sold in a series of charity auctions on this website.

The artists involved have donated their images and time to the project and set up the website for free. This means that after printing and postage costs, every penny raised will be donated to the victims of the Tohoku earthquake.

The site is accepting submissions for possible inclusion via the submission page: http://www.theprintaidproject.com/submissions

One of the project’s founders Pete Carr said:

“In January one of my photographs was sold for £2,000 in the Photos for Fairbridge charity auction. I was astonished and really proud that my work raised so much for a good cause. This really opened my eyes to the potential that my images have to help other people and has inspired me to help set up the Print Aid Project.”

Matt Thomas, who came up with the idea to set up the Print Aid Project with Pete and fellow photographer Dan King, is an experienced fundraiser who is currently planning to travel a third of the way across the world for charity in this year’s Mongolia Rally. He said:

“Nobody who saw the scenes of devastation caused by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami could fail to be moved. I immediately wanted to help and when I realised that others felt the same we established the Print Aid Project. The response from other photographers wanting to take part has been fantastic.”

Co-founder Dan King:

“Not everyone can afford to bid huge sums of money in a charity auction, so we felt it was important to have two strands to the project and offer the special rate prints as well. We hope that these will be really popular and raise a lot of money for this important cause.”

Further details of the photographers involved and prints available are on the website www.theprintaidproject.com

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