Lynn Renee Photography Blog | Meet the Faces of Liver Disease
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Meet the Faces of Liver Disease

22 Feb Meet the Faces of Liver Disease

Posted at 17:54h in Uncategorized by
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Living With Liver Disease

Two years ago I was hired by a PR firm to work with the American Liver Foundation, creating headshots of patients at one of the many hotels by O’Hare Airport in Chicago.  This past summer I got the call directly from ALF themselves to come back and do it again.  With a very packed summer, it was a tight squeeze to fit them in, but I would move heaven and earth to create these impactful portraits once again, it was just what I needed at the perfect moment.
Roy here had a successful liver transplant and was thrilled to share his stories of working as Bruce Springsteen's personal assistant. For this Jersey girl it was as if I'd photographed the Boss himself.

After many talks with my client, we put a game plan in place; they had rooms in the hotel at their disposal, and between the conference rooms and the various common spaces I’d have plenty of options.  Since the last round had been natural light portraits, I wanted to recreate that approachable, real person feeling.
For years she had put her career on hold to take care of her mom who was dying with liver disease. When she recounted her memories from her life as a caretaker, it was with this radiant and glowing smile.

But when I showed up it was a cloudy day and all of the windows in the hotel were tinted, which is really common with large skyscrapers downtown, but I wasn’t expecting them at the hotel.  I had my strobes with me, but I wasn’t ready to crack that case open yet. Then I walked out the back entrance of the hotel and saw all of this glorious green on this hot and rainy July day. According to Accuweather, the rain wasn’t going to continue so we checked with the hotel and they OK’ed my location.
Instead of going into detail on his own personal struggles, Tom was too busy showing me his gorgeous family all dressed up as the Incredibles for Halloween. It wasn't until I looked him up on the ALF website that I read how his former sister in law donated half her liver to save him.

At first, I was thrilled with the cloud coverage, but as the day progressed the sun came out to play, and I had to keep adjusting accordingly, moving people around the space, rearranging my reflectors to block sun spots and bounce light. But I couldn’t move my camera up an inch, because then you’d see the lines of traffic going in and out of O’Hare that were on the other side of all that green.
At first, I was thrilled with the cloud coverage, but as the day progressed the sun came out to play, and I had to keep adjusting accordingly, moving people around the space, rearranging my reflectors to block sun spots and bounce light. But I couldn't move my camera up an inch, because then you'd see the lines of traffic going in and out of O'Hare that were on the other side of all that green.

To create impactful portraits you have to create a connection that will translate in the final product. Often you ask basic questions about where they live, what they do for a living.  But having come from my own home where my 6-year-old was recovering from surgery I found myself diving deep into their stories of liver disease; the survivals, the triumphs, the loss, and the discovery of love amid despair.  When I left I found myself surrounded in hugs and well wishes for my own journey.