Taylor - Project Days 1 + 2

So, for those of you who don’t know, I am working with a nonprofit organization called Flashes of Hope. Based in Cleveland, Flashes of Hope works to change the way children who suffer from cancer and other terminal illnesses view themselves and their disease through photography. The founder of Flashes of Hope, Allison Clarke, created this organization when her son was diagnosed with cancer. As a former model, Allison and her huge network of photographers, makeup artists, and hairstylists traveled to various local hospitals to transform hospital rooms into photo studios and photograph pediatric cancer patients with their family, friends, nurses, pets, etc. Through these beautiful black and white photos (such as the one on the right) many of these patients began to see their changing appearance (loss of hair, weight, etc.) as a result of their illness much differently. Also, during her son’s treatment, Allison unfortunately met many families of recently deceased children that were left without a photograph of their child. So, the photographs taken by Flashes of Hope are given to the patient and their families as a keepsake free of charge. Now, 10 years after the first shoot was held at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, there are over 50 Flashes of Hope chapters throughout the US that, in total, photograph over 4,000 patients and their families each year.

On my first day of project, I had my APES test and didn’t end up working. On Tuesday, Natalie, the Image and Photographer Relations Manager, gave me a tour of the office and introduced me to the other 9 women who work at Flashes of Hope. For my first project, I put together packages of photos from a recent photo shoot, and then mailed them to the families of the patients who were photographed. My next assignment was to work on a section of their annual report, which was interesting but got extremely boring after awhile. In the past, Flashes never had to compose an annual report because it was never considered a big enough business, so it was never really necessary. However, now, due to many generous donations and an increasing client base, Flashes has to start composing annual reports, starting with this past year. So, I had to go through various documents and record every makeup artist, hair stylist, and photographer used at every Flashes of Hope photo shoot in 2010. On Wednesday, I finished working on that part of the annual report, and then helped archive and edit what felt like a thousand photos from various photo shoots. After only two days, I have been involved in many conversations and meetings, and have already learned a lot about the formation and growths of non-profits such as Flashes of Hope.