Photographing Noe Chavez Garcia reminded me what a rare privilege it is to be invited, however momentarily, into someone’s life to take their photo. I came back to the office excited about what I had just experienced — I stood face to face with the Miracle Man and took time to make what I thought was a compelling image. I lay in bed later that night and couldn’t get his face out of my thoughts. I couldn’t imagine what he had been through and how amazing it was that he was alive today.
I tried to keep this in mind today as I wrestled with my computer for hours on end. A system crash led me to think that I may have lost the picture of Noe forever. I tried to remind myself how trivial my dilemma was relative to what Noe had been through.
Fortunately, I received some great tech support and my computer began working again. Like Noe survived, so did this photo.