Helpers and Healers: The UCF Connection to the Pulse Nightclub Shooting

TL;DR: Helpers and Healers is a portrait series I photographed for Pegasus, the magazine of the University of Central Florida (UCF). It shows people who responded to the June 12, 2016 shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, which took the lives of 49 people.

Who is pictured in the Helpers and Healers portraits?

The Helpers and Healers portraits show people who responded to the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando. According to the Pegasus article, they include UCF Police officers, Orlando Regional Medical Center surgeons, UCF Victim Services advocates, staff from the Orlando mayor's office and Equality Florida, social work faculty, a Red Cross responder and the founding director of UCF RESTORES.

How did the Helpers and Healers series come about?

The Helpers and Healers series started with a call from Ron Boucher, the CD at UCF, asking if I would be interested in doing a portrait series on the connection between UCF and the Pulse shooting in Orlando. I immediately said yes. I photographed the portraits in a custom-made blacked-out studio. It wouldn't be the last portrait series I'd do for Pegasus. I later photographed social rights activist Richard Lapchick for the magazine.

A lot has been said about the shooting, much of it more eloquently than I can do justice.

Where was Helpers and Healers published?

Helpers and Healers ran in Pegasus, the magazine of the University of Central Florida, with words by Laura J. Cole and photos by me. You can read an archived copy of the Helpers and Healers article in Pegasus as it appeared in the magazine.

Why did photographing Helpers and Healers feel personal?

This portrait series felt personal because Orlando is my home.

I've lived in Orlando all my life. Not long ago I wanted to escape this town. I thought it had nothing to offer. I was always annoyed with its ties to tourism, its transitory population and The Mouse. As the years passed I began to see an alternate identity emerge and it started to grow on me. Now we've got a great food culture, several great universities that invest in the community and many more opportunities for artists of all kinds to thrive. Now it feels like a place I'm proud to call my home.

Someone attacked my home. They attacked my people. To be honest I don't think I really processed it all until this shoot. At times photography feels like a job. This time it felt like therapy. I mentioned to my assistant on the day of the job how comforting and kind so many of the subjects were. There were a couple people who I just wanted to hug. And it wasn't that I wanted to comfort them. I wanted them to comfort me! Their presence was so soft, kind, and nurturing.

I'm thankful for the people pictured here. They gave themselves to the service of others. They made themselves less to make my home a better place.