I Am A Pre-Existing Portraits-A Personal Project(Updated)
Amongst my family and friends, it’s no big secret that my political views are liberal. Here my blog, I do try to stay neutral. However I am a big advocate that healthcare is a basic right for everyone. No matter what medical conditions that you have now and not, eventually as we all age, we will have Pre-Existing Conditions. This is just a fact of life.
Since Trump became the person to be in our White House, I’ve been part of groups to bring about awareness. I may not be able to be able to go to every meeting, but I do my best to spread the word, make phone calls and not just stand in the sidelines. I was part of a small press conference, UniteWomen.org allowed me to document the Women’s March in Washington D.C. on their behalf, and more.
One of the many projects in our small town is to send out postcards to representatives both local and nationally.
My idea is to take portraits of the very people that the votes affect directly, by putting them on a postcard that gets sent out to local and national government representatives. A face to the causes that they vote on, to make our voices heard visually.
Because this is a personal project that I needed volunteers for, I asked that everyone I photographed to purchase at least 25 cards and postage on their own. I decided to go with Moo because I can order batches with different images on the front. This is who I order my business cards from and I am always happy with the results. The Dorothea Dix Unitarian Universalist Community in our town is where our groups hold meetings, and they generously allowed me to photograph the portraits there.
I asked for volunteers via our Bordentown Neighbors Acting Together(BNAT) Facebook Group and I had about 10 or more respond. But because everyone has different schedules, who you see here is who I was able to photograph on that particular day.
My goal is to continue this project, get more people so that it creates more of an impact.
Some of the pre-existing conditions that I was told about the people for this project are:
- Myeloproliferative Neoplasm
- Anemia
- Migraines
- Pregnancy
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Fibromyalgia
- Psoriasis
- Crohn’s Disease
- Diabetes
- Allergies
- Depression
- Hemiplegic Migraines
My friend’s mother in-law is a gymnast.
My husband took this one of me.
This is a behind the scenes for I Am A Pre-Existing Portrait personal photo project. The oval of light coming through the muslin is the window of the front door. I shot tethered with my Canon Mark 5D III. I tried a few different setups, and decided on one light with a Phototek and a reflector. I’ve had this brown-is muslin for a long time and knew that this was the project that would lend itself nicely for it. I had everyone sit on an applebox or stand. I kept the light up on the boom, but ended up not using it. I have these images in b/w and a sepia tone to them. I wasn’t sure how I liked them that way or not. But in the end, I stayed with full colour.
Below is a behind the scenes video that is straight out of my Olympus mirrorless camera shot by my husband, David. It’s just video clips slapped together in iMovie, because I’m not an editor like he is. Eventually he’ll make something better for me when he gets some time in his busy schedule. You’ll see us having a good time, me being silly and how I like to make everyone feel good about themselves, there’s a swear word in there too.
I Am A Pre-Existing from Deirdre Ryan on Vimeo.
Thanks everyone! And if you want to be a part of this project, please contact me.
UPDATE!
You can tell that I’m tired, I had just volunteered all day at my daughter’s school for the Scholastic Book Fair, I’ve been trying to get these out in the mail for the past week and I kept running into obstacles. Plus I had to copy and paste all of the names and multiple addresses of the Congressmen, Women and those in the Senate. Yes, I sent some out to House Speaker Paul Ryan, Vice President Mike Pence and Donald Trump. But you better believe that Senators Mitch McConnell, Cassidy and Graham and my continuant, Congressman Tom MacArthur got theirs among others.
There were quite a few that I couldn’t send out to, I ran out of postcards, time and something happened to the printouts of the labels. So quite a few I had to hand print the addresses. But overall I’m happy, I’ve done my part and I want to do more.
I managed to finish them and take these to my town’s post office. But I didn’t realize that they close at 4:30! So I was still able to buy stamps and adhere them to each and every one. The video above I did when I had a moment today, shot and edited on my iPhone SE using iMovie. I made a mistake with my website, but rest assured, it’s still www.deirdreryanphotography.com LOL I was just too tired to do it all over again. I’m sure you can all relate to days like that, right?
Different areas has archaeological digs going on, including at the Slave’s Burial site.
We met a little friend at the original family vault. Can someone identify this lizard?
Inside Washington’s Tomb is both George and his wife Martha.
Visiting the 
After paying tribute to the Slaves Burial Ground, we walked down to the river and then to Pioneer Farm.
Here, a gentleman demonstrates to the children how to separate the wheat in order to eat it, as an example of what threshing does in the replica of the 16-sided barn designed by Washington for treading wheat.
I asked if I could take his portrait, and he was very happy to let me, his wife is an artist as well.
Inside the 16-sided barn.
An example of a cabin that the Washington’s slave had lived in.
We took the wooded trail back to the mansion and to meet up with the rest of our family for lunch.
I wanted to wander around a little before eating….
The buildings were getting repainted while we were there.
As I was wandering around, I spotted a deer near the estate.
On the way back to my aunt and uncle’s home, we stopped at Jefferson’s Memorial. I had never been here before and it was on my list for a long time.
My daughter checking out the view.
It took a while, but after patiently waiting, there was a break in the crowd of people, and I got a shot of President Jefferson’s statue without anyone in it.
An engagement session, the light was perfect for it.
Across the river you can see the Martin Luther King Jr. Monument.
Can you guess whose statue is shown below? Tell me in the comments.
Our daughter is really into spies and mysteries, so the 
They have a really cool James Bond 007 exhibit, I didn’t post everything, so that I won’t spoil it for you. But I couldn’t help but post Jaw’s teeth!
Oh and this mask, can you guess which James Bond film it’s from? Tell me in the comments below 🙂
After the spy museum, 
First, the Hall of Presidents, this is a 
Then we wandered around, taking in as much as we could.
One of the current exhibits is called 
Here is the Class of 1967, those that could make it to this event. The evening sky was just beautiful!
They presented a check of $1,000 our school.
The ladies of the committee.
After the large group photo and presentation of the check, we came inside for a few guest speakers, and a prayer before eating.
They honored their Vets and those no longer here.
The Class of 1967 has the most student who have passed away from either the Vietnam War, accident, sickness or cancer in our high school’s history to this date still. My mother’s yearbook has so many notes next to classmates pictures that say died or passed away, a fifty-something kids…
The band started to play and hardly anyone stayed in their seats. Remember, this class had the year of incredible music.
Yes, that’s me dancing with my mom LOL I’m so glad that she had a great time.
The band was rocking and awesome! I actually know the lead singer, he actually knows my good friend Phil, a fellow photographer and musician.
You can’t have a party like this without a conga line 🙂
Sometimes someone else gets in the picture LOL!
Stephen was a natural in front of my camera, while I did give him direction and coaching, these favorites of mine and his, are all him. We started off in the orange and white striped hallway, then the stairwell, and after that, we wanted to get one more area. We walked into an unfinished area, he turned a corner inside of it and this amazing room appeared. Raw, still under construction like the rest, but just beautiful and perfect to represent him and what he does.
His brother came by and wanted a quick shot so I did one for him too.