By Xavia Malcolm, American Pink Cross in Larger NY
Purple Cross volunteer Kevin Suttlehan’s images are so striking they typically seem to be to leap off the web-sites on which they show up. His images are evocative and want extremely couple or no terms to immerse the viewer in the moment.
Kevin’s enthusiasm for pictures commenced about 40 several years back though attending superior faculty and college and he has perfected his artwork about the decades. On the other hand, his career as a prosecutor and later on as a consultant in the money field eaten most of his time. When corporate lifetime slowed down and he retired, Kevin seized the opportunity to acquire a deeper dive into pictures.
“I made the decision to do anything that I seriously like and use it to give back again to my community. So, I began to do photography perform for charities and nonprofit businesses,” he explained. This conclusion eventually led to him starting to be a volunteer with the American Pink Cross in 2018.
Right now, Kevin continues to make an impression by documenting moments that men and women may perhaps not or else expertise. His photographs depart an effect on hearts and minds.
Kevin hopes his images will make a distinction. “As a photographer, I test to keep away from utilizing the adage, a picture is really worth a thousand terms. It is a small cliché but genuine,” he laughed. “A truly great image can say it all with out the intimate facts of a tale. It can be highly effective and inspire change.”
When asked about his method for capturing a magnetic picture, he gladly shared his system, “It actually begins with remaining observant of your environment and connecting with the activities that are taking spot around you. I am always looking for nonverbal interactions involving our volunteers and clientele in anticipation of genuine exchanges this kind of as a hug or hands achieving out. I fork out attention to eye call and basic gestures that can inform the entire story.”
Kevin is also really conscious of the privacy of those served by the Crimson Cross. He stresses that it is constantly essential to question authorization right before taking a photo. This not only builds rely on but also upholds the Pink Cross’ procedures to shield people impacted by disasters and be delicate to what they are enduring.
Amongst Kevin’s quite a few encounters with the Purple Cross capturing the organization’s mission in action, some of his most significant have been on deployments to emergencies significantly from home. In late 2021 and then in the summer time of 2022, he traveled to Kentucky, initial in the western portion of the condition following one of the worst tornadoes to ever strike the area, and later to eastern Kentucky wherever communities had been impacted by flash floods. Kevin recollects Pink Cross volunteers operating all over the clock to make certain people gained the shelter, meals, materials, and psychological assist they necessary.
“One of the privileges of volunteering for the Purple Cross is getting afforded entry to exceptional lifestyle functions and witnessing human kindness firsthand,” he stated. “I think about myself incredibly privileged to be a portion of this organization’s mission, but I come to feel most fortunate currently being one of the people to seize its essence and share it with the world.”
