When you’re 21 and spent months in bed after being shot and now you can say something like: "When you think, 'Hey, I can't do that'... there's always a person next to you that's worse off than you. We all have realized now that the only thing that could stop us doing what we're doing is death."
When you have two kids and a wife and have just been diagnosed with cancer, and you think, "I have the spirit of getting up and fighting," and you chose to train every day that chemotherapy allows.
These are the reasons that being a newspaper photographer is worth all of the bullshit and stress and boredom and struggle. You get to make portraits (yes, lit portraits with a portable backdrop) that show people (in this case, athletes competing in the Warrior Games, a competition for wounded, ill, and injured service members) with tremendous spirit in the best possible way, and then their stories are shared with hundreds of thousands of people. Your so-called struggle is thrown into sharp relief. What are you bitching about anyway, really?
I’d like to give a shout out to one of my team leaders from Eddie Adams, Stacy Pearsall who, on top of being a remarkable photographer, will also be competing in the Warrior Games. I always knew she was bad-ass, and this just takes her to a new level.
Get out there. Fight the good fight. The only thing stopping you is death.
2 comments:
Wow, Amanda. Very remarkable and inspiring. Thanks for sharing your passionate vision.
So, I noticed that you're spending a bit more time working your shots over in PS. Bravo.
Top right is great. It reminds me of "Big Heads" from Mediastorm.
Miss you kiddo.
I'll be in Missouri this coming weekend if you feel like flying in for a visit.
Wm
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