Portraits of Everyday Fighters: Parkinson's Awareness Month

"We shadowbox here every day, but I never saw the real shadow until now."

Randy Evans, called "Powdered Sugar" in the boxing ring, is not your average boxer. In Rock Steady Boxing's non-contact curriculum, fighters don't battle each other [1]. Their mutual foes include anxiety, slow motion, apathy, and reduced coordination--just a few symptoms of Parkinson's Disease.

Randy doesn't have Parkinson's because he's a boxer.
He boxes because he has Parkinson's.

Fighters Deserve Celebration

Last year I was browsing lifestyle news articles to get more familiar with charities local to my home state of Utah when I found a story featuring Sheila Powell (left) [2], an individual you might not peg as a boxer if you passed her on the street (and yet has a left hook to brag about!). Intrigued and profoundly inspired, I followed the organization's Facebook page and learned that while the participant demographic across the country was widely diverse, every participant shares one very important thing besides Parkinson's in common: a fighting spirit.

April is Parkinson's Awareness Month [3], and in March I decided it was time to put my admiration of these brave souls into action.

Fighters deserve celebration, and the best way I knew how to do that was to photograph these boxers in a way that made them feel like real champion fighters.

In the few hours spent at their gym I met young people, older people, individual people, even couples--most of whom are everyday people I wouldn't guess even think about Parkinson's, let alone suffer from it. (An estimated 4% of people with the disease are diagnosed before age 50! [3]) We laughed and we posed and we punched, and when it was all over I returned to my car and instead of feeling buzzed from all the excitement, I just felt...quiet.

That's what happens when you feel humbled by a group of courageous someones.

2018 marks 50 years of marriage together for this couple. True story.

Rock Steady Boxing

Parkinson's Disease doesn't have a known cure, but if you or someone you know suffers from it, come take a moment to see if Rock Steady Boxing is a program that can help improve your quality of life.

#fightback
#beatparkinsons
#rocksteadyboxing
#rocksteadyboxingwasatchfront

The Fighters

(Some also shown above)
Facts shown below sourced from Parkinson.org [3]

FACT: Men are 1.5 times more likely to have Parkinson's Disease than women.

FACT: Incidence of Parkinson's Disease increases with age, but an estimated 4% of people with Parkinson's Disease are diagnosed before age 50.

FACT: More than 10 million people worldwide are living with Parkinson's Disease. 

FACT: About 1 million Americans live with Parkinson's Disease, which is more than the combined number of people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy and Lou Gehrig's disease (or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis)

Couples who fight together, stay together
(or something like that...)

FACT: Approximately 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease each year.

The Coaches

Sherri Bickley, director of Rock Steady Boxing on the Wasatch Front in Utah, USA.

Tech Specs

Most of my portraits are lit with a single light (or at least designed to appear that way). But for this project I just decided to go with whatever felt right for the person I was photographing. I brought two lights in octa softbox umbrellas to the boxing gym and set up wherever each person was most comfortable. Most two-light setups in the series were angled from the sides at 45 degrees toward the subject, and the single-light setups were designed with a main and a fill. I wanted to see the hanging punching bags behind each person to give the room more dimension, so I angled the fill light behind and away from the subject.

Sources

[1] RockSteadyBoxing.org - a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people with Parkinson's Disease with hope by improving their quality of life through a non-contact boxing based fitness curriculum
[2] Monday Close-Up: Fighting Parkinson's disease, one punch at a time, by Dominic Valente at the Daily Herald (featuring Sheila Powell)
[3] Parkinson.org - foundation and website containing valuable resources, information and statistics related to the disease