Posted on 06/17/2013 5:42:11 PM PDT by grundle
What is wrong with this picture?
It's one of those things that you don't get, until you get it. Unless you are eternally empathetic, you look at this photo and don't see much wrong at all.
To Anne Belanger, mother of Miles, the photo is unbearable to look at.
When the class portrait for her son's Grade 2 class came home, she opened it excitedly, and immediately shoved it back in the envelope. She couldn't look at it. It broke her heart.
Anne's son, Miles, has Spinal Muscular Atrophy. At the age of 13 months, his parents were told that Miles would never walk, he has spent his life in a wheelchair.
Miles knows he's different than the rest of the kids, but he still tries to fit in. So there he is, on the far side of the image, neck craning as far as he can to stretch into the frame with the rest of his friends. He's beaming. It's school picture day and he's thrilled.
But the photo still broke Anne's heart. The photo was a clear example of how set apart her son is from society. Instead of a big group hug photo with Miles at the center, and classmates and teachers all around, a fully inclusive image, he was stuffed off to the side, some 3 feet away. An after thought, it seems.
(Excerpt) Read more at shine.yahoo.com ...
Yep. Kid doesn’t look bothered by it at all.
Don’t let Bill Maher see this ‘retarded’ kid! /s
If I had been in charge I would have taken him out of his wheelchair and let him sit on the bench.
That’s what I thought - the chair was placed as close to the benches as it could be.
Could the child have been placed out of his chair and on the benches? I doubt it - probably not without risk.
Life sucks. It really does. I feel deeply for this family and what they must endure. I wish the photographer would have been a little more astute and placed the wheelchair in the center of the photo and not off to the side. But he didn’t.
I would also like it if people wouldn’t point at him as he goes by in the mall, but they do and will. I would also like it if people didn’t speak in front of him as if he isn’t there or speak to him as if he can’t understand them. I know those things happen as well.
I’ve been around more than a few people with disabilities in my like so I know that’s how people treat them. It sucks. And for parents of children with disabilities, they hurt for their kids when it happens.
But you put the picture up anyway and watch him smile. He will realize that you are pleased enough with him that you put it up even if someone didn’t treat him right.
Everyone could have skooched a bit to the left filling the gap.
And it would have looked like a normal class picture.
But nooooooo....
Just an inexperienced photographer. I would apologize and just offer to retake the photo.
MAD -— Mothers Against Demeanor’s
Send this mother something shiny to gawk at.
As a photographer, I can comment that many of the commercial photographers who do this level of work are extraordinarily clueless, and downright stupid when it comes to setting up a picture - I’ve seen it over and over again with band photos, etc - they think that getting the correct exposure and focus is the sum total of a photo.
If I were the photographer I would have put him right in the middle in the front and have the other kids form a gap.
My first thought as well.
If you did that, then he would get all the attention and the rest would be what, background dressing? The boy is special in that he is in a wheelchair and was included.
Chill out drama queens. I had a basketball coach, Nash Revera, 1966. Use to say, “your special, just like everyone else.”
It looks like the riser is largely to blame.
Or slide the kids over to the right side of the benches/platform they were on to close the gap, either one would've worked.
I know some people will always look at situations like this and find offense where likely none was ever intended. I can't imagine a school photographer intentionally creating a situation where one child is singled out or set apart. I'd bet the photographer didn't intentionally do this or know it would've created hard feelings in the mother.
No reasonable human being would do such a thing and I'm willing to give the photographer the benefit of the doubt.
well, they could have had the class sit to the right side of the benches...
Well, it seems a lot of you never had to deal with raising a special needs child, or a child with severe disabilities. How nice for you.
But for others, it’s a heartbreaking life. You KNOW your child will NEVER be accepted, will never live a normal life and, really, will suffer loneliness ON TOP OF the disability.
My son is in a special needs class. They keep him and 8 others mostly separated from the rest of the school. I hate it ...he’s marginalized and kept on the periphery. It’s needless, as he’s a wonderful kid once you get to know him.
Society sucks. We look at people superficially ..never knowing WONDERFUL people, because we look only at what we see on the outside.
I understand her hurt. They could have been mindful of this, but they weren’t. God Bless her and I pray someday God erases the hurt from her heart forever AND she is reunited someday in heaven with her son BOTH with new bodies to live with Our Father in Heaven forever.
I’m glad I’m not the only person who feels this way.
Thank you.
This photo is wrong.
They could have fit two more students in the front row, had the wheelchair bound student at the end with the teacher between them filling in the gap.
When I was in High School back in the 80’s we had a wheelchaired student in our class. I don’t recall why he was in a wheelchair because it was never an issue. He was one of us. Because of him only my class was allowed to use the elevator :) how cool was that! ha ha. Our class photos ALWAYS had him front center.
As a photographer, I don’t agree. It’s a pathetic and appalling photograph, and wasn’t necessary. Wheelchair in the middle wasn’t necessary either. A little creative, thought could have found a better solution, but this is all you get for $100.
I think the teacher could have stood on the side with this child, and the classmates moved a bit off-center, clos to the child.
Are we so cold hearted, that we lack compassion?
As a photographer, I don’t agree. It’s a pathetic and appalling photograph, and wasn’t necessary. Wheelchair in the middle wasn’t necessary either. A little creative, thought could have found a better solution, but this is all you get for $100.
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