Wednesday 16 July 2014

Photographs of children with special needs...

While shooting a group photo for a nursery recently, I was asked to do individual shots for three of the children who missed the last photo shoot.
Two of the parents ordered and I delivered the prints this week.
The girl has "selective mutism", and the boy is autistic. His particular issue (or one of them) is that he will not have his photograph taken, and immediately stops whatever he is doing and tells them to "put the camera away", even when he is engrossed in reading to the other children (!).
When I asked the girl to say "Cheese" for the picture, she did so, even though she will not normally speak. 
The boy came and had a photo taken, and we got the most delightful and adorable picture of him for his parents to treasure, where you would never guess that he has any issues whatsoever.
When I manage stuff like this, it brings me more satisfaction that pretty much anything else that I do, because it makes me realise that a) I am coming across in the right way, even to the little ones, and b) the pictures show a sense of achievement and "specialness" that most of the other pictures I take cannot measure up to, however much they capture a moment, emotion or personality.
I cannot share the pictures, but can assure you that they will stay in my memory for a long time to come.