Jonathan's photos

Often, in the Centre, we embark on something and don’t realise the far reaching good effects this action will have. A case in point was when, during our Easter meal, my son Jonathan came to take some photographs of the Centre and the clients. Jonathan spent about half a day taking photographs in and out of the Centre. All of the clients were ok with him doing this. As he was taking the photos he was chatting to clients and, being Jonathan, having a laugh with them. Because he was staying around for a while the clients started to relax and the shots Jon took are so good.Jonathan sent us the photographs on disc and we have had them on the computer playing non-stop. The clients have really enjoyed looking at them and the conversations around this have been so insightful. A good photograph can speak a thousand words and it was very humbling to see a client looking at themselves and speaking about what they saw in their own face. Often it was sad as they saw in their own eyes what was going on in their hearts. They shared some more details of their lives that we hadn’t been privileged to hear before. It was also a time when they saw good things too and some of our clients realised how good looking they are! With the life-style our clients’ lead they are often unable to even look into a mirror and often they don’t want to anyway. It was such an excellent tool to affirm clients, in a way that most of us would not need, but also for them to look more closely at themselves and see such positive things.

We will, at some point, be able to use the photographs to a greater extent in the Centre, but in the meantime we are getting great pleasure from looking at them and seeing and hearing our client’s reactions. We are also grateful to Jon for his time and producing such excellent photographs.

"I enjoyed Jonathan taking them photos, in fact its the first time I've had my photo taken, since first, when I was in the Sally, and then here in Ben's .  Jon's a very good photographer, etc."

George's comments about having his photo taken by Jonathan.