The Faces Of Compassion
Having compassion is not all about entering into someone’s misery; although, this is a core component of compassion. There are many faces of compassion that we express visually. The photos in this post show three people with major, even life-threatening, problems yet, in the middle of their suffering, there is joy. So much of life is both bitter and sweet and you can have sweetness in the middle of the darkest night. If you are ignoring this aspect of compassion you are missing a major portion of the picture.
Finding these moments is a combination of timing, patience and an understanding of the nature and character of the person and the situation. Some people will never show joy even in the most joyful times of their lives. Others will seldom show any negative emotion because they are naturally upbeat people. Most of society is somewhere between these two extremes. In any situation of life you will find both good and bad.
I am frequently amazed at how people react in tragic circumstances. From my days in a volunteer fire department until now, as a photojournalist, I have observed the reactions of people under stress. It seems to me the worse the scope of a disaster, the more hope you seem to find. Conversely, the more personal the tragedy the harder people seem to take it. Let me give you an example. Some of the greatest hope I have ever witnessed comes out of the most horrific tornadoes I have covered. People just sense the scope the disaster and determine that the circumstance will not beat them and they resolve to move on. Most of these folks seem to be very positive. On the other hand, someone who experiences the unexpected loss of a loved one seems to be the most stricken.
Another group I am always amazed at are the terminally ill. Many of the people I have encountered with terminal illness have made their peace with the act of dying and have passed over the darkness into something akin to hope. The friends and family they are leaving behind will usually be far more glum than the one who is actually ill. I went the long way around the mountain with this one to say you can find many different ways that people deal with the situations of life and death. Some will laugh, others will cry. Compassion allows you to enter in, if only for a few moments, to their lives and translate what they are feeling into photographs.
The best way to capture these moments that really translate into photographs of emotion and intimacy is to go into the situation fully prepared. Are you going to have to light the room? Are you going to shoot available light? What is the best lens? What are the best angles? Make the preparations and then be ready for the moment. There is nothing worse than being in the middle of a lens change when the key moment occurs.
It usually helps to talk to your subjects for a few minutes. It will help you gain a better understanding of their situation and helps you find the key place to enter in to their lives, especially if your time on the assignment is limited. You can set your lights while you talk or you can be scoping out your angles and doing all your mental prep while carrying on the conversation. When you start to shoot you will probably be better off shooting a few frames while allowing your subject to get used to the idea of being in front of a camera. It usually takes a while for the subject to lose their “camera consciousness” and just start to be normal. Now when the moment comes, you are ready, your subject is acclimated to you and the camera allowing a “real” moment can emerge.
About the photos: The first photo is from a first time reunion of guys who served together in the U.S. Army during the Viet Nam conflict. The man in bed was dying and his old buddies payed a visit. This was a situation I had to light and decided on a single strobe placed on a dresser at the end of the bed. The light was contrast but the approach felt right. The middle photo shows a lady getting a Bible and the keys to her new Habitat for Humanity house. Out of her poverty came this priceless moment of joy and just maybe, a turning of the tide in her life. The final photo shows a little girl in her backyard. The normally joyful shot of a child swinging is tempered by the fact that she is suffering from leukemia, a disease which may have been caused by fuel leaking from an underground tank at the gas station behind her house.
Photos copyright The Decatur Daily. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.
