Capturing the Journey of Rehabilitation
The biggest priority as a storyteller is to tell stories that are meaningful and ones that matter. Telling these stories however can be a vicious cycle of feeling inadequate and reaching for an unattainable level of perfection.
When my photography instructor told the class that for a final project we had to make a photo-film, I knew instantly whose story I wanted to tell.
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My brother Fiaz Rahman had spent a majority of 2015 in hospitals and in doctor offices. In March he underwent a daylong spinal fusion surgery for his degrading scoliosis, only that wasn’t the last of it.
The surgery was a failure, the screws that were implanted to keep him up straight came loose and his state worsened, he immediately needed another surgery.
Around this time, Fiaz was 14. Shortly after his birth he had 3 heart attacks that led him to paralysis from the chest down. The reasons for these heart attacks were and continue to be a mystery to our family and countless health officials.
He grew up on a wheelchair. The only identity he knew was the one society graciously labeled as ‘disabled.’
Fiaz is a self-aware individual; he’s comprehensive of his advantages and disadvantages along with how his health condition can restrict him.
After the second surgery, our family and his health practitioners agreed to admit him into a physical rehabilitation center for a few months, hoping for a strategic recovery. His new home became Holland Bloorview, a kids rehabilitation center.
For nearly four months Fiaz stayed at this rehab. This was the longest time he spent away from his family.
This was a time where his consciousness became his greatest company, often feeding him thoughts of disparity but nevertheless thoughts of hope.
During this time is when I began my project. I took photos of him whenever I could. I wanted to tell Fiaz’s story and what it was like for him to spend so much time away from his home and family.
I visited him often, I went in-between classes and work and during the weekends. At first, Fiaz wasn’t happy about having a camera between us, even though we are the closest of siblings he was incredibly shy. But, I was persistent.
I made sure that the camera came out naturally; I didn’t want this to be a photo shoot. I always had my camera on and waited for the perfect shot, knowing that with each photo there was a story behind it.
After I had compiled a few thousand photographs, I decided to interview my wary brother. I sat him down once during his stay, and another time after he came home. In both interviews, I asked him a set of questions all pertaining to his wellbeing.
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After four months of footage, I sat down for two weeks slowly editing the footage. This was also the most tedious and difficult part.
You see, getting the footage is 80-percent of the content; the remaining 20-percent is the editing. However, the editing is 80-percent storytelling and 20-percent is your content. With editing, you choose what you want to include or omit, allowing a certain trajectory. This is where my creative side needed to kick in, something that only ever sparks around four AM in the morning.
My first choice was to process all the photos in black and white. I had this voice in my head telling me the story would be amplified in greatness if the photos were in black and white, so I edited over 500 photos to black and white over a week.
This was also my first time using Adobe premier, the editing software my instructor insisted on. I learned how to use it over a few hours and began my work on it, working tirelessly to attain the level of preciseness I wanted.
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Looking back at the project months after publication, I am proud of the final product. I worked tirelessly, and in the end, I was happy with it, and so was Fiaz.
I also learned that being a perfectionist can be pretty straining- there were many times I wanted to quit the project and start over and tell another story, however the resilience I got from my instructor and peers is what kept me going, when I didn’t see faith in myself, they did. Eventually, so did everyone else.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwFeEc5j6ro&feature=youtu.be
By Sadiah Rahman
Please note that opinions expressed are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views and values of The Blank Page.
