Real Life Portraits

A Lady's Best Friend

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"Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring, it was peace."  Milan Kundera.

Portraits of people with their dogs is a new project I'm working on. It's simple, I'm offering a shoot of dog and owner in a scenic location and then the chance to buy a framed print. Please if you or anyone you know may be interested email james@jamesclarke.me and if you have time please share this post. Oh and this picture is of Vanessa the Belly Dancer and her great dane Daisy Doo.

Two Men And Their Dogs

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Apprentice shepherd, 14 year old Olly Russell with his neighbour and mentor 84 year old John on his farm in Flintshire, North Wales. Olly who was recently diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, has his own flock of sheep, drives a Land Rover, manages his dogs, goes to school as well as tirelessly helping John throughout the recent lambing season.

The Diabetes Lab

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A few shots from my recent visit to the Diabetes Research labs at Kings College School of Medicine. As someone who has diabetes it was particularly interesting, both to see the actual research happening and that headway is being made towards some kind of cure. Most of the research going on was into the blood of the newly diagnosed to gain a full understanding of what is happening to the blood cells at this time and whether any intervention can stop or slow down the process. Fascinating stuff and certainly these studies really are heading in the right direction coming on in leaps and bounds in the last few years. The head researcher there likened the speed of their achievements with what has happened with HIV research and treatment, that is something that was once a death sentence only a few years ago, is now completely treatable and people live long lives with it. However he wouldn't be pushed on that eureka moment and when it would happen, it seems that tests on humans for anything they come up with are still a long way off. It was a real joy to see it all in action though and by a surprisingly cool bunch of young people while listening to louder than you'd expect, groovy music!

The Dentist

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This is Karina Sotero, my favourite dominican dentist. Aged just 23, she is a fully qualified dentist and runs her own surgery in La Romana in The Dominican Republic. Multi-lingual, clever and charming, she was a sponsored child in a Compassion project with her sponsor continuing to sponsor her through college.

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Robin And Sue

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photocrati galleryThis is Robin and Sue McGibbon who I photographed  last week to go with a story about the recent death of their beloved dog, Abby. Robin takes up the story......

My wife, Sue, and I agreed for James to photograph us for the Daily Mail, as part of our campaign to outlaw an anti-inflammatory drug, Carprofen, which led to the death of our black Labrador, Abby. She was given the drug by Tender Paws, in West Wickham, Kent, to ease arthritis, but, after just four tablets, developed the most distressing side-effects and, sadly, had to be put to sleep a few days later. We won't rest until the drug is banned.

The Big Picture

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It's always exciting to see your own pictures out there being looked at in the public domain. This, at least double life-sized version, is my biggest so far. It's geordie surfer Conel Freeman who was one of the models for my diabetic portraits exhibition, the picture, among others of mine is now being used as part of the re-branding campaign for Diabetes UK, here it is on show at a recent health charity conference. Let's get the next one on the side of a bus!

 

More about Conel and that picture here: http://jamesclarke.me/family-and-child-portraits/blood-sugar-is-down-but-surfs-up/

Compassion For Elizabeth

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photocrati galleryA pic of mine in an ad for Compassion Sunday which is a day when churches in the US promote the Compassion charity and encourage people to sponsor deprived children from around the world. Elizabeth who features here was the star of my recent trip to Guatemala. She is 11 years old , lives in a tin shack and takes care of her 3 younger mal-nourished siblings and disabled father. She is sponsored through Compassion by  a lady from Colorado Springs also called Elizabeth who sends her about $30 per month which helps to make her very tough life a little bit easier. You can see it in full here as well as the video that was shot of the two Elizabeths on the same trip I was on.

http://compassionsunday.com/index.php