Coming Back To Life

On Sunday, February 12, 2006, my father, Jim Baker, suffered a severe hemorrhagic stroke. After spending a month in a coma, my father began his long road to recovery. The stroke left him partially paralyzed on the right side of his body and with a language disorder called aphasia. Now over nineteen years later, after extensive physical, occupational, and speech therapy, he is able to walk with the help of a cane and a leg brace and experiences difficulty communicating on a daily basis. I believe my father would not have made the progress he has without the help and dedication of my amazing family; as well as the doctors, therapists, caregivers, and friends who have entered his life along the way.

Photographing my father and family has been cathartic for me. These images are a testament of one instance of a family’s struggle among the thousands of stories of people who endure the challenge of caretaking for a loved one.

When I made the decision to photograph my father, I did not want to emphasize the negative aspects of the ordeal of his stroke. The sadness, frustration, and anger are all obvious. Instead, I decided to explore the hopefulness of the situation and display that my father luckily maintains his positive attitude and lives his life as best he can while continuing to pursue his dreams despite his disability.

Is it a perfect photo story/documentary? No. But it’s mine. Throughout this experience, there have been times I’ve consciously raised the camera to my eye, and times I’ve decided no to. The times I have not are documented in my memory, which is good enough for me. These photos are deeply personal, and technical and editorial quality remain a distant second to the importance of what they mean to me. They exist and represent my personal experience of going through the hardest thing I’ve endured in my life, and that’s all that matters to me.