Photographing Jess and Patrick in the Aftermath of the Boston Bombings

I had the distinct honor of photographing Jessica and Patrick for The Boston Globe in December for a story that ran in late January (see the story here), who happened to be victims of the Boston Marathon bombing.  Both had lost their left legs as they watched the marathon.  Jessica, at the time of the assignment, had been considering amputating her right foot, due to the pain and continued rehabilitation/recovery. 

Ran with story, here. 

Initially, the idea was that I would accompany her on a visit to the doctors and therapists at Walter Reed.  When that idea fell through (permissions, especially when it's close to the holidays are especially difficult to come by).  So the best we could do was meet in front of the NIH metro stop and shoot for about 30 mins. 

The initial story (a year after the bombings) is here, and you should read this one and the one that ran in January, because Eric did a great job following this story over the years.

When the job is to capture the essence of a complicated story, both tragic and amazing, it's pretty tough to succeed on any deep level as a photographer.  Essentially, I regarded this story as a love story.  After 20 minutes, we all laughed together, because it almost felt like an engagement shoot.  And maybe it was in the sense that they were starting their lives anew.  They were perfectly pleasant and wonderful people to meet.  You'd never know what they had to go through.