The other day I was looking to make a new edit of my portfolio work, when I came across my images from one of the accidents I covered on K96. As I began updating the captions, I realized that I didn’t know what finally happened to either of the people involved.
So it came as a huge surprise to me when my editor asked me to make a few photographs of Sheila Turner, the woman who’d been driving the sedan at the time of the accident.
I immediately had a good deal of respect for Sheila. She told me as soon as I walked in that she doesn’t like having her picture taken, but that in this instance she hoped it would make the other driver, as well as drivers in general, realize the potential consequences of irresponsible driving habits. For me, this is the side that I typically have to explain to the people I’m photographing. That the photograph is not being made so much for the benefit of the newspaper and its staff, but for the benefit of the community through education and awareness. So it was nice to meet someone not in the journalism field who can understand that.
I just hope that my photographs are strong enough to help build that awareness.
