Meet Aissa the patient. See the work of Aissa the photographer.
Photo Assistant
She got it. Almost instantly. I have never seen a photographic gift so naturally ignite.
Aissa was a big story on the ship. We had heard from Europe that they would be doing an entire campaign on her story and to prepare for her arrival. Our office was completely familiar with her day’s even weeks before her arrival and the day she came on the ship we were placed on a freeze. She couldn’t be documented during the admissions process due patient sensitivity. Understandably so since, she had traveled a long distance and would be experiencing a bit of a culture shock when she got to the ship.
On the night she was admitted, I got a page from the nurses in the ward that they were going to remove the bandages off of her face and she would soon after be ready for a pre-op photograph. I grabbed my camera and went to visit her. I hid the camera behind me and introduced myself as best possible. She was riding a toy car that was obviously too small for her but she was having a good time. As the nurse prepared to remove the bandage, I showed her my camera and asked her if I could take pictures. She shook her head “yes”.
We didn’t speak a common language, but we hit it off instantly. And I followed her. Every day I would visit her and almost every day I took her photo. I was permitted to go in the ward and document her surgery and was allowed to be in the ward every time they would change her post-op bandages.
On the day this photo was taken, I think she had grown so tired of me always taking her pictures that she slipped my Nikon right from my neck and placed it around hers. Just like I do. She couldn’t quite get the eye framing because my camera was really heavy and I showed her that if she brings her elbows into her chest it would be easier to manage the weight. She smiled and agreed. At the time only one eye was patched and she spent the rest of the afternoon looking through the lens of a camera. And as she looked at her world from the rectangular frame of my lil Nikon, we didn’t fully realize that she was about to show me her world too. What she photographed. What she liked to photograph. And what the world looked like from her height and from her perspective. From what seemed valuable to record in her heart.
Most importantly she was empowered. The Nikon and Aissa became one. She had spent weeks being pulled, poked, and pushed. She took it but she often would put up a fight. She liked to be in control of her surroundings and this camera gave her a bit of power to manage and enjoy even while the medical team cared for her. She liked to tell people how to “freeze” or how to pose for the frame. And she loved to love. All important ingredients for a good photographer.
Enjoy…the photos…and her continued story!
photos of her documenting:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photo2217/sets/72157625061814964/with/5092295525/
photos of her life while on the ship:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photo2217/sets/72157625058215740/
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