Being a full time photographer is an amazing thing. However the freelance world can be brutal. High season, you work 60 and even 70 hours a week. And low season you try to relax and take some time off, but you are constantly checking emails and project already for when busy months arrive. So in other words, you are working most of the time. And because you love what you do and are passionate about it we get trapped into this non stop reality.
So for for 2019 I promise myself I would:
1- Take 2 weeks vacations with my husband
2- Go visit my family in Argentina
3- Take a workshop with a renowned photographer
And even though all of them matter, I will talk about the third one in this post.
If you ever thought on becoming a photographer, you probably love telling stories, or wanting to express some kind of message to the world. I know I do. Doing a workshop or mentoring as an artist is a way of pushing forward in your craft. How are you going to be better? how will your work improve?
I signed up to Kirsten Lewis One year mentorship program on “Narrative”. I have know Kirsten for years now and I knew the moment the class was offered, that was the mentorship to take. Part of the class included a week in Mexico, Salt Lake City or Poland. Because SLC was happening in June (slow season in Florida) I decided to sign up there.
So, one more time I google how safe it is to travel by plane and booked my ticket (you would think that someone who travels as much as I do wouldn’t be scare of flying, well WRONG). Back to the story. I landed in Utah and immediately fell in love with the landscape. The mountains, the air, the calmness in comparison to Miami.
I met with Kirsten and 9 other amazing photographers to brainstorm about the stories we were going to cover that week. I had 3 leads but nothing concrete. I met a woman with 15 snakes, 2 cats, 1 bearded dragon and a dog. I also contacted a woman that had suffer from domestic violence. But it was the moment I met Lexi I knew I was meant to tell her family story.
Lexi is a mom to 3 wonderful kids, and wife to Jeff another extraordinary human being. I met her at her temporary rental home 5 minutes from her house because they were remodeling. And it was there when she explained to me why they were remodeling the house.
Henri, their oldest (9), was diagnosed with Dechenne Muscular Dystrophy 5 years ago. And it was time for him to start using a wheel chair, but the house was not equipped for a wheel chair. So while going through blueprints and papers I realized how much they cared for their son.
Duchenne is caused by a genetic mutation that prevents the body from producing dystrophin, a protein that muscles need to work properly. Without dystrophin, muscle cells become damaged and weaken. Over time, children with Duchenne will develop problems walking and breathing, and eventually the muscles that help them breathe and the heart will stop working.
Many people with muscular dystrophy have Duchenne syndrome. Girls can be carriers and mildly affected, but the disease typically affects boys. There is no cure, but physical therapy and medications, such as corticosteroids, can help control symptoms and improve quality of life.
So I followed the family for 5 days. Taking Olive to sewing class, art class for Sal, swimming lessons with Henri and doctors appointments for follow ups with Jeff and Lexi. They accepted me and my camera and I immediately felt I knew them for more than a couple of days, that strange feeling of already considering friends and caring for them when you really just met them.
I was so lucky to found a project with a good cause, because that’s what I wanted. Henri was still walking at the time, so having images of him being more mobile was huge for the family. They understood thing were going to change soon. But as a Narrative I was still a little lost. Who was the story I was covering about? Henri’s journey? Lexi? Jeff? Olive and Sal? I had the pictures but where is the narrative?
Kirsten told us that the last day we were going to invite all our subjects to a viewing of the finished work. I told Lexi about it and she asked me if the kids where welcome. Of course they were. However knowing that Henri was going to be part of the showing led me to a new direction on my presentation. I didn’t want to tell him a sad story, I didn’t want to express in my pictures that deep inside my heart was breaking about his situation. I wanted to bring him happiness and show him how lucky he is to be surrounded by so many amazing people.
That night I struggled through critique. Kirsten kept telling me my narrative wasn’t there. She helped me sequence images and asked questions for me to figure it out, but I wasn’t sure where the story was going. I will confess, I cried. Not so much for failing as a photographer, but failing to the Bigelow family. After all these days together I wanted to gift them something special.
I stood up and told Kirsten “I will have the narrative by tomorrow”. She looked at me and said “Chantal, you need a narrative by tonight”. So I got into the car and drove to the Bigelow’s house to photograph them for dinner time. The sun was setting behind the mountains and I had “On the nature of Daylight” by Max Richter when this idea came into my head.
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