Flashes of Hope

I got the chance to help out Flashes of Hope again this past week. This is a great organization that uses the power of photography to help kids and families battling cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. It's a chance for kids and families going through a rough time in life to get a chance to feel good about themselves. Working for newspapers for so many years this idea that pictures matter was somewhat abstract. Photographers typically don't hear about the positive impact that their pictures have in the community. Writers have their emails and phone numbers with the story but photographers are not given equal treatment. As a journalist, I always believed in the challenge of telling stories in places that weren't inherently dramatic. Not to dismiss the work I did in those kinds of places as a part of my career or those who devote their lives to that kind of work. But I find it a satisfying challenge to make extraordinary images out of ordinary situations. I was never a death and destruction kind of guy. It's great to be a part of photographing people for the simple purpose of affirming their life.