Photographing Miraculous Children

Metastatic nearoblastoma, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, acute myelogenous leukemia, twin to twin transfusion syndrome, lymphocytic leukemia, pulmonary hypertension, scoliosis, these are very big words associated with these very small children. Words a parent should never have to hear.

Another difficult set of words to hear is:

“You must get to the hospital right away.”

These are all words that entered the lives of these families who needed pioneering care for kids at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. The Hive Advertising of San Francisco called upon me to photograph a number of children and their families for this heartfelt marketing campaign. All these children are miraculous survivors because of some very amazing medical treatments and care from the people at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. Meeting these children, one would not expect they have hada life with so much hardship at such an early age, but that is what makes these photos so special to me -- they look like typical ordinary children.

I guess that is what they wanted from me, simple, honest photos that get to the heart of the matter.

A Prom for Everyone

 
Here is a letter I wrote to the George Mark Children's House.

Dear George Mark Children's House,

I want to thank you so much for thinking of me as your photographer for the GMCH Prom portraits. It was truly a remarkable experience and privilege to photograph the attendees of the prom.

The opportunity you offer these young people is a blessing and a gift to live life experiences that other children may have. I had a gut feeling something special would occur that night, because I see with my soul and capture with my heart. The uninitiated may not understand the full meaning of these photographs, but the parents and children themselves understand that they live in a different world – a world with limits and physical boundaries, but not a world without love and compassion.

Here are just a few of the shots I captured that evening. I feel there is a nice collection of photos that should serve as a poignant reminder of the grace and beauty that is possessed in everybody.

Sincerely,
Christian Peacock
 














SFMOMA Artist Gallery exhibition with my photography


SFMOMA Artist Gallery recently selected eight of my photographs for consignment. My print titled “Berkeley City Club Moving Waters.” has been specially selected to be included in their upcoming group exhibition “Sin and Redemption”. Please visit the gallery at Fort Mason in San Francisco. Viewing my photo will be a good way to redeem yourself.

To learn more about the show please visit their blog.
 http://sfmomaag.blogspot.com/2012/06/sin-and-redemption.html
July 14th- August 23, 2012 

Opening reception July 14th. 1:00-3:00

Fort Mason, San Francisco

Here's a shot of mua when I was delivering the prints.


Theatrical Themes

My summer project has been creating theatrical themes with a 1960's film twist. Starting with felliniesque concept of Saraghina and the foolish clown, then onto the black widow checking up on her dead husbands. Too the bongo beatnik party, ala Funny Face. To see more of these photos got to my website.






Kashi Good Friends effect on People


Some time ago I shot the cereal packages of Kashi's Good Friends. This blog post from Amateurgoumet.com came across my path reminded me how some projects have a life of their own. Still to this day when people hear that I shot "Good Friends" they will tell me all about their breakfast eating habits. The art work on the package has changed and I was not part of the new photography, but none the less it's still a good ice breaker at cocktail parties. Please read this post about one woman's experience with all those smiling faces.

"My Cereal Killing Spree"
http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2004/07/my_cereal_killi.html

Fire in Yosemite


Just returned from a weekend in Yosemite and there was was an out of controlled fire burning near the HWY120 entrance. The fire started off as a controll burn then quickly out got out of control. Hummm. Starting a fire in August? Anyhow the smoke from the fire has filled up the valley. From this photo taken from the tunnel road you can see that Half Dome is almost obscured from the smoke. There were a number of helicopters dumping water on the fire. They would fly over the valley and pick up water from the Merced river below.

Always say "Yes"



My father told me to always say "Yes" when someone asks you to take their photo. One time I was almost ready to shoot a group portrait on location, when a group of Chinese business tourist came along. They asked if I could take their picture. Of coarse! One Polaroid for them and one for me.

Sample of actual photo journal page.


This is a sample from one of my photo journals. I used these pages for my template on my email promotions. This actual book is a few years old and is now out of commission. I have moved on to a new book. The color of the pages in the new book do not lend themselves as well for my promotions as this old book did.

Flying Pixies!



Michele Adams, creative director at Dorland Global needed to come up with an ad for BD Biosciences new and improved diagnostic cell sorter machine. “Wow” how many art directors have had to come up with a creative solution to these types of projects? She was determined to do something more creative than the expected shot of equipment. She came up with the idea of a colorful circus aerialist flying through the air to represent colorful performance the new machine offered.

We both wanted to capture the sense of movement and depth, casting a small pixyish aerialist was the added touch to help convey the magic that goes on inside the machine.

From her past working experiences with me she trusted me to help conjure up the ideal aerialist performer. Casting a small pixyish aerialist was an added asset to the photograph. The metaphorical meaning of the photograph took on an added dimension to the ad. She has become the little color fairy inside the machine. For most technical types this would be scoffed at as pure fantasy. For after all they are serious researchers and little color pixies have no place in science, but to most people it still seams a little bit like magic on how these machines work.

On set the talent gave us her all in fantastic feats of strength on the tissues. (Term used for hanging silks by those circus people in the know.) I also shot a number of exposures of the tissue alone for post production use

There was a considerable amount of CGI work done on this shot and it was done in-house. Knowing the final image would have a rainbow of color applied over the tissues I shot the talent in a white unitard while hanging from the white tissues Plus a large quantity of tissue samples where shot to be used later for post-production.

After selecting the main body/expression image; the construction of the flying tissue took place. After many varieties of flying tissue ideas were developed we selected the one that felt the most like flying through the air. Then the process of adding color begun, again with many variations of color palette and blending to consider.

All it took was hard work and careful notes.